The Ballad of Madeline Olsen
by MarinePixie
Summary: Maddie Olsen thought she left her troubles behind when her dad moves her family to Mystic Falls, she figured instead of worrying about vampires she could be a normal teenaged girl but she soon finds out even slayers can't run away from their destiny's.
1. Chapter 1

You know that tag line that they use for Disneyland? The happiest place on earth, well my dad used that tagline on me when he announced that we were moving to Mystic Falls… happiest place on earth my snow white ass. Did my dad really despise me so much that he uprooted us to what could only be described as the most boringest place on earth. Apparently he was offered a great job and decided that it was better to raise his three children in a small town than San Diego. It was day four on the alien planet and unfortunately for me the first day of school. "Morning Madeline, your hair seems to be exceptionally bright today." Dad tells me as he looked up from his paper as I trudged into the kitchen after five minutes of trying to locate the kitchen as I was still not used to this house.

"My roots were starting to come through so I dyed it last night." I comment as I open a cupboard and grab a bowl before joining the rest of the kitchen table.

"Could you not have dyed it back to your normal hair color, it hurts to look at something so… orange, this early in the morning." My brother Rory commented as he put on sunglasses to emphasis the fact. Like the rest of my family I had naturally jet black hair but over a year ago I bleached my hair blonde before dying it a rather bright shade of copper red.

"Magnus and Ozzy like it, so do I." My little brother Felix added as our two dogs were sitting by his feet begging for attention. Dad brought us two puppies to help ease the transaction which had completely won over Felix seeing that he was eight years old plus the fact that dad let him name them. So now we had a beagle named Ozzy and a Siberian husky named Magnus.

"You're going to school like that?"

I look down at my outfit I didn't think it was that bad, I was wearing a loose grey cardigan over my treasured Frankie says relax t-shirt with black jeans tucked into doc martens. "What is it? Pick on Maddie day?" I demand.

Rory grins as he sits there in his plaid shirt and jeans. "Not really but it's the first day of school you might want to make a bit more of an effort if you want to make any friends Maddie."

I sneer at my brother's response. "Don't give up your day job Rory, you'd suck as a motivational speaker and for your information I am perfectly capable of making of friends."

"What's a motivational speaker?" Felix asks as he gets out his little notebook out, my brother carried around this green notepad that he wrote down words that he didn't know or understand and later asked my dad what they would and mean before writing them down as according Felix 'dad knows lots of big words.'

"Someone who tells people what do with their life and how they can make it better." Dad explains before turning to Rory and I. "You guys sure you don't want me to come to school with you to help you register for school?"

"Pops we'll be fine, go hang out with Felix and the dogs." Rory assures him.

"Well you'll need to leave now if you want to get there on time; being late doesn't leave a very good impression. I should know." Dad jokes.

Both Rory and I rolled our eyes as we immediately could see that coming, our dad was a Professor of comparative literature and part of the reason we moved to Mystic Falls was because he had a job offer from the University of Virginia his alma mater. "Very funny dad, but we get the point we're leaving now." I state as Rory and I both get up and he takes our bowls and puts them in the dishwasher.

"Well have a good day and play nice with the other kids!" Dad tells us as Felix waves as we make our way out of the house.

The drive to school is a relatively quiet one as Rory plugged in his iPod as soon as we got into my car and I had to focus on the road so I wouldn't miss wherever the hell it is this new school is. When we did arrive Rory was unimpressed by the size of it and I understood it was like half the size of our school back in San Diego which meant it would be harder for me to blend into the student body.

"What happened in San Diego isn't going to happen again, right?" Rory asked as we made our way to the school. "I know this is a lot to ask but can you just try and be normal Maddie? This is a fresh start for all of us and that includes you so can we please have no funny stuff?"

Normally I'd make a joke or something but my brother was right, this was a fresh start for all of us including me. No more sneaking out in the middle of the night, hiding bruises just me finally getting to be a normal teenage girl. "I promise Rory, they'll be no funny business here…"

After we had finished registering with the school administration and gotten all of textbooks from we had to go our separate ways as I was a junior and Rory was a freshman and after putting my books in my locker I look at my schedule to see I have history with Mr. Tanner and begrudgingly I make my way towards the room. Walking into the class I assume the guy leaning on the desk is Mr. Tanner and I had him the note that I've been told to hand to all of my teachers. "Everyone we have a new student joining us from San Diego, this is Madeline Olsen."

"Hey." I say giving a quick wave before sliding into an available chair in the back.

"You don't look like from San Diego." Mr. Tanner says.

"Excuse me?" I ask not really sure where this is going.

"Well if you don't mind me saying you're seem rather pale for someone from San Diego." He clarifies and the class laughs at Mr. Tanner's attack at my pale complexion.

"I'm naturally fair skinner and according to scientist apparently too much sun is bad for you and isn't there a scientific evidence to show that there is a link between too much sun exposure and skin cancer?" I retort.

"Very good argument Ms. Olsen another question though, is that your natural hair color? I only ask that because reports say that red heads with fair skins have a high risk of getting skin cancer."

"I'm afraid not, it's dyed my natural hair color is black." I curtly reply, I knew this was my fault for bringing up the skin cancer thing but I had no idea why Mr. Tanner was carrying on with this. I felt like kicking his ass but I couldn't do that as like Rory said this was my chance to be a normal teenager once again.

"So you just decided to dye your hair this particular shade of red and be a carrot top for your own amusement. That's very interesting." Mr. Tanner says which gains laughter from more of my classmates and so I raise my hand in order to hit him with a comeback in order to save what remains of my dignity. "Yes Ms. Olsen?"

Putting my hand down I tuck a piece of my hair behind my ear. "Actually Mr. Tanner I dyed my hair this color to reflect the rage I have towards my mother for abandoning my family two years after my baby brother was born. Everyone always told me that I looked just like her and despite how angry I was about her leaving I never said a word about the comparisons. Until a year ago when I turned sixteen, it was my brother's eighth birthday and my mother had sent him a birthday card and it was the first time any of has heard from her since she had left. It read 'I'm sorry, happy birthday love mom.' I didn't want to be her daughter or look like her in slightest so I dyed my hair the color which I thought visually represented that the best. And although I'm not a natural red head I do take offense to the carrot top comment and some people see those comments as being prejudiced or even racist and in 2008 a boy from Vancouver was investigated by Canadian police for possible hate crimes for setting up a group on a social network site for setting up a national kick a ginger day."

This apparently seemed to stun Mr. Tanner for a brief moment and cause the rest of his class to begin quietly snicker at my response. "How very fascinating Ms. Olsen but if you don't mind I'd like teach this class history rather than the ill treatment of redheads."

Score; Maddie- 1 : Mr. Tanner 0

After the horrific incident that was history with Mr. Tanner I kept my head incredibly down, as soon as the bell went I shot out of my class and made it through most of my classes without drawing any attention to myself. I was now in the girls bathroom looking at my hair which I had to admit that dad and Rory was right; it was shockingly bright. I'd have to wash it a couple more times and hope it would lose some of it's brightness because I wouldn't be able to dye it again for a few more weeks. This way the worst way to start a new day. "Stupid red hair…" I murmur to myself.

"You're hair's really nice Madeline, you should ignore Mr. Tanner." A voice says and turning to the left I see that it's too girls I'm sure that were in my history and English class. The first girl had oval face, almond-shaped eyes, and dark brown hair and the second girl was African American with large almond-shaped green eyes, medium long curly -black hair.

"You'd think a teacher would refrain from making jokes like that… at least in front of his students." I wearily reply.

"Mr. Tanner has no boundaries even if it's about parents." The first girl tells me.

I wave my hand in a frivolous manner. "The mom part is true but the dying the hair wasn't because of her isn't, I just wanted to make Tanner feel guilty. Just because I'm new doesn't mean he has to be an asshole."

The second girl smiles at me. "You've just been Tannered; trust me he's like that with everyone."

"Tannered? Interesting, first day and I've already been Tannered I would have thought seeing as it's my first day that the teachers would have been nice and I would have made some friends but the way this morning has turned out, I severely doubt that."

"We think it's cool that you took him on and that red head argument was very impressive and I wouldn't be too sure on the friends' part." The first girl states before holding her hand out to me. "I'm Elena Gilbert and this is Bonnie Bennett."

I laugh and shake their hands. "Well you know this already but I'm Madeline Olsen but please call me Maddie."


	2. Chapter 2

"So I heard you got an verbal ass kicking from your history teacher." Rory tells me as I shut my locker and the two of us make our way out of school and towards the car. To be honest I was too surprised that Rory knew about my verbal showdown with Mr. Tanner as the whole school had known about it by lunch.

"Actually it was him who got the ass kicking, I won." I boast proudly.

"Dad's going to pissed when he find out." Rory noted with an amused look on his face, which automatically meant he wanted money to keep his mouth shut. In the past I had given my brother more than enough to quieten him and I really didn't want to give him more money but my dad could not find out that I had gotten into a verbal slinging match with my teacher on my first day of school.

"Fine…" I begin as I dig into my pocket and pulled at a $20. "Well I'll have to pay you later as I only have–"

"–I can break it." Rory replies snatching the money out of my hands and running off to the direction of my car leaving me to laugh at my brother's antics.

"Madeline Olsen?" A rather young looking man with brown hair and blue eyes standing to the left of me asked and I froze on the spot at his unmistakable English accent.

"Sorry you have the wrong person." I begin walking away, I had a sneaking suspicion of who this man was and what he wanted with me and I didn't want anything to do with me.

"No actually I don't." The English man said as he held up a photograph of me. "Your exactly the person i've been looking for and i'll tell you why. I know you've just moved here from San Diego where you lived downtown and attended San Diego High School with your younger brother Rory Harrison Olsen whose fifteen. You have another younger brother named Felix Matthew Olsen whose eight years old as well. Your father is Dr. Matthew Anthony Olsen and he is a professor of comparative literature formerly of University of California, San Diego but he's now at the University of Virginia his alma mater, which is the reason why you moved here to Mystic Falls. Then your mother Mary Elizabeth Olsen née Harrison was a paralegal until she left six years ago and you haven't seen her since and you are indeed Madeline Rose Olsen, you're seventeen years old and you are the Slayer."

I look around to see if anyone has heard the S-word before looking at the man. "Who the hell are you and how do you know that?"

The man sticks out his hand to me. "Adrian Willis, your new watcher."

Watcher. Next to the words Slayer and Vampire in what I believe are to be the worst words in the English dictionary and the words I'd thought I'd never hear again. "I told the last person that the council sent to me that I wasn't doing this anymore, so go find yourself another girl to do your bidding because I'm not the slayer, I quit weeks ago. So I'm sorry that your wasting time" I say before walking away.

"Madeline you of all people know it doesn't work like that." Adrian calls out. "Into every generation, there is a chosen one. One girl in all the world–"

I could not believe this guy was quoting the prophecy to me as if I needed to be reminded on how my life was ruined. "–She alone will wield the strength and skill to stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness; To stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. She is the Slayer." I angrily state as I make my way back to Willis. "I know the prophecy, I lived the prophecy so don't you dare try and use it against me!"

"I wasn't Madeline, I was just merely reminding you of your destiny."

I honestly couldn't believe I was still talking to this guy because he was the most irritating and condescending person I have met which made him perfect for being a watcher. I didn't have to be reminded that I was chosen at random out of thousands of other potential slayers to be the slayer because i've known that for the past year. "I have an idea, screw my destiny and why don't the council get off their lazy ass and do something for once?" I offer.

Willis laughed as he circled me. "Ah, they said that you were a real live wire Madeline and I certainly see it…"

"Seriously how old are you because you may just be the most incompetent watcher I have ever met and trust me I met a few in my day." I demanded.

"29." Willis quipped as he stuck his hands into his pockets and smiled to himself.

I actually felt insulted that the watchers council sent a child to babysit me despite the fact that I had quit being the slayer. "29… are you freaking kidding me?"

"Afraid not Madeline, the council decided to send me because they felt that they needed a younger watcher who was equipped to deal with you and your unique situation." Willis explained.

"You really don't get any of this do you? That's the thing about the watchers council, they can preach all they like about the rules and slaying being my destiny but you have no idea what it means. What this job does, what it involves…" I begin as I start to get further annoyed with this guy Willis' laid back attitude.

"I know it may not seem like it but I understand Madeline."

"Don't talk to me as if you know what I'm going through! Nobody gets what I'm going through and the people who could possible understand all of this are all dead hence the reason I was chosen for this god for saken job… It's my life that was changed, I'm the one who had to go patrolling for vampires putting my life on the line every night knowing full well that I might not come home to my family. I was helpless as they killed Cecile and then I had to sit there and wait until she finished her transition before I had to kill her." I snap although I keep my voice down to a very loud whisper. "Someone dies and it means nothing to you, it's an acceptable loss because there's always another watcher somewhere and there's always going to be another slayer because like it states 'when one dies, another is called."

Willis looks at me before taking a deep breath. "And the watchers council were deeply saddened at the untimely death of your previous watcher Cecile Langford."

"Can you honestly tell me how many girls like myself have lost their lives because they were the slayer? Or how many watchers like Cecile have died on the job?" I demand.

"No and I'll admit it's a shame that I can't but you still have a job to do…" Willis replies looking at me expectantly.

"Well you can stick your job, I don't want it… like I said I quit." I retort as I walk away, I didn't know how many times I'd have to make it clear to the council that I was no longer going to be their little puppet. If they wanted someone to go kill the vampires, they could go and do it themselves because I wasn't the vampire slayer anymore. I was Madeline Olsen, a normal girl.

"Innocent people are dying Madeline and you can help stop more from dying." Willis calls out and I can't help but stop, I had to admit this guy was good using the people dying bit got me all the time. In fact it's why I agreed to do this slayer gig in the first place. Taking a deep breath I turn around in time to see Willis running to catch up with me and when he does he holds out a business card to me. "If you change your mind you'll find me here."

"Don't count on it." I say as I take the card and put it into my back pocket before finally walking away for good as the term cocky little bastard comes to my mind about my encounter with Adrian Willis.


	3. Chapter 3

Purely out of interest I found myself making my way to the address on the business card that Adrian Willis gave me and it led me to a bookshop called the library, which I found to be an odd name for the bookstore but instead of questioning this I look at the piece of paper containing my directions and the name of the store, and apparently it's the one that I'm standing in front of. Despite the closed sign I find that the door is open and I walk in. "Sorry but we're closed… " The familiar sound of Adrian Willis says until he spots me. "Ah it's only you Madeline, it's nice of you to show up even though you're late… I was expecting you twenty minutes ago."

"You knew I'd come." I reply judging by the grin that Willis had on his face but instead of allowing him to comment I move on instead, focusing the cop who happens to be the room. "Whose the cop?"

"I'd like to introduce you to Sheriff Forbes and Liz this is Madeline Olsen; the slayer." Adrian announces to my surprise.

I resisted the urge to throttle Willis throat, we had only known each other for under an hour and he sure willing to reveal me to anyone. "You're the slayer?" Sheriff Forbes says in surprise. "She's rather young Adrian, I was expecting someone older…"

Adrian nods. "Yes… the slayers tend to be but I assure you Liz that Madeline is fully capable of eradicating your little vampire problem, her reputation proceeds her..."

"Um… excuse me but what's with revealing the big bad secret it's supposed to be a secret or didn't they teach you that in watcher school?" I demand irritated by the fact that Willis was just as incompetent was I suspected. "I don't know how you do things and we're not going to find out because I'm the slayer and the only way that this is going to work is by doing this my way. I work under the fact that my identity as the slayer is kept a secret to ensure my family and I are safe and I will not put them in danger because of your recklessness, is that clear?"

"Crystal clear, your royal slayerness." Willis quips with a grin on his face and a spring in his step and i could tell that we weren't going to get along but i already knew that from the first when we first met this morning.

"Now please explain why civilians are aware of my status as the chose one?"

"The council have given us special clearance as we're dealing with a unique situation and as Sheriff Forbes is particularly close to the case and knows the town's history she'll be acting as a sort of liaison to us." Adrian explains as I drop the duffle bag that I brought with me before sitting down in an armchair waiting for the next big secret to come out.

"So what exactly is this unique situation with this town? And it had better be worthy of my time otherwise I'm out the door. It must be pretty big as the council manage to pull strings to get my father to move us here." I ask, glaring at Willis as Sheriff Forbes hands me a rather large file. I wasn't stupid all of this was connected Dad being his dream job and us moving here to Mystic Falls where there happens to be a vampire problem.

"This town has a history with vampires and it stems back over a hundred and forty five years ago. Back then there was a problem with vampires and the bodies kept building and so the town had to take action and using vervain and the device, the towns people rounded them up and the vampires were locked them in Old Fell's church and the church was burned to the ground…" Sheriff Forbes explains.

"Device?" I question.

"One of the original members of the council and the founding families; Jonathan Gilbert created a device that is capable of tracking vampires… the device is now separated into two parts but I can get it if you need it." Sheriff Forbes offers.

Willis looks at me and I shake my head, I didn't need some old compass, as it would probably just slow me down. "Madeline has her own way of finding vampires and from what I've heard they occasionally find her.

"So this council of yours what do they do?"

"Officially we're in charge of commemorating the town's history but unofficially we protect the town from vampires. Ever since what happened in 1864 the founding families have been passing down journals and vervain just in case the vampire came back and then fifty years go they came back and killed five people. The deaths were disguised the deaths as animal attack and they about fifty years everything went quiet…"

"And now they're back?" I finish and Sheriff Forbes nods and hands me a police report. "Are you sure it's vampires?"

"Yes it's the same mo, the bodies have been abandoned and completely drained of blood, then a teenage girl was attacked but she survived and even through the town have been led to believe it's animal attacks the fact that it was in open space not to far from town has the town worried. There's only so far we can reassure them."

I look at the crime scene photos in the report, considering what the Sheriff told me it seemed as if this town was some kind of vampire magnet zone and I had to admit I was slightly interested as I glance over to Adrian. "Hellmouth, right?" I question.

"Absolutely, without a doubt."

"Hellmouth?" Sheriff Forbes asks.

"Slayer term, basically means an area is a hotspot for supernatural activity and considering the vampires keep coming here to a small town in Virginia practically screams Hellmouth to me." I admit before moving things back on track. "Whose on the council?"

"The founding families and my deputies, I can get you a list of names or if you'd prefer to meet them…"

"NO!" I below much to all our surprises. "You will not tell anyone that I am the slayer Sheriff Forbes over wise I'll bail and leave you all to deal with the vampire to which most of you will probably die as you don't have my certain skill set. Like I said I work the basis that people don't know I'm the slayer to keep everyone safe and in small towns people like to talk and if the vampires find out that there is a slayer in town then they'll split and that my life much harder."

"Madeline, your assignment if you chose to accept it is to find out who the vampire is and to get rid of it." Willis begins with a smile.

"What do you mean get rid of it? Give the nasty vamp a bus token and send it on it's way or kill it?" I retort.

"Very funny Madeline, but I'll take this to mean that you are resuming your slayer duties."

"Yes but before you tap yourself on the back and tell the council that you convinced me to come I'm letting you know that you didn't convince me, not in the slightest. In fact Willis you made me more than ever not want to resume being the slayer." I admit as I continue to flick through the crime scene photos.

"So may I enquire as to what changed Madeline, the vampire slayer's mind?" Willis quips.

"My family." I state as I put the photos' down and stand up. "I don't want to be the slayer but there are vampires in this town and my family and I live here now and I will do anything to protect them, even returning to active duty."

Willis quietly laughs to him before he walks away and attempts to drag over a large black truck before I finally take it from him, as it's actually pathetic watching him when I could easily carry the trunk. Opening it up I unload several weapons and put them into a duffle bag starting with knives, daggers, my favourite taser and of course several stakes leaving the axe and the crossbow in the trunk. "Are you sure you're going to be okay taking those back to your house without you father realizing?" Adrian asks.

"I get that you're new at this whole thing Wills but I'm not, I've been doing this for over year and trust me it'll be fine, I've done it plenty of times and I lock them away so my dad and my brothers don't come across them." I say waving my hand in a frivolous manner.

"We have a gun that uses wooden bullets if you're interested?"

I'd almost forgotten that Sheriff Forbes was her and I shake my head at her offer. "No thank you, I don't believe in using guns I much prefer to go old school with stakes, crossbows and axes."

"One more thing Madeline." Willis said before pulling out the handbook, the slayers guide to slaying and a whole waste of my time and a rather boring read in my opinion,

"Seriously? I'm not reading that crap it's a waste of my time but you can go ahead and use it as a doorstep." I retort.

"What's the book?" Sheriff Forbes questions.

I laugh as I pick up my duffle bag and swing it over my shoulder. "Look lady I don't know you so your not seeing the book because it's for me and me alone, all I know is that I'm here so I can kick some vampire ass and as the chosen one that's what I'm going to do and now that we've established that I'm going to home to take a nap."


	4. Chapter 4

_I was dreaming. But can you really call it dreaming if you've dreamt the same dream more than once and know for a fact it's not a dream but a warning? I've had this 'dream' four times since I was 'called' before and last time I had it was three months ago, just after Cecile had died and I quit being the slayer. In this dream I'm not myself; I'm a girl close to my age with medium length red hair and dark almond eyes with a sweet smile. After months of investigating I find out that the girl is named Lorraine Johnson, she's a slayer just like me but she was active between 1964-66. She was sixteen was she was called but died when she was eighteen, in my dream Lorraine is eighteen. Like usual the dream starts of with me as Lorraine in a diner dressed in uniform holding a hot pot of coffee._

"_Hey Lorraine! Customer down the end wants a refill and he asked for you personally." A woman called out._

_Like the previous times my feet begin to walk on it's own accord down the black and white tiled floor of the diner towards the far end of the diner. The occupant has his back towards me but like always he's wearing a black leather jacket and when I reach him I place a hand on his shoulder. "Hey darlin' I hear you want a refill?" I say in Lorraine's upbeat and peppy voice like always. _

_The occupant doesn't answer and instead he turns his head but there's no actual head. I've never been able to see his face as there's always a mannequin's head in it's place but this time it's different as I see a pair of eyes; a hauntingly beautiful pair of blue eyes. The sound of chatter in the dinner fades away to be replaced with the sound of a crow in the background and the mannequin's lips mysteriously starting moving. "Beware Madeline, Beware Madeline…"_

"_Beware of what?" I ask in my own voice now as my body seems to change back into my own as the crow continues to caw in the background and then two girls get up of some stools in the diner and walk over to me. The first girl is Lorraine and the second girl is a blonde hair blue eyed girl called Odile, who I know to be the slayer from the years 1920-21. This was different as I had never dreamed of Odile let alone at the same time as I dreamt of Lorraine before. "Beware? Beware of what? Lorraine, Odile what's going on?"_

"_Danger." Lorraine states._

"_Bloodshed." Odile adds._

"_What do you mean? What is going on? Can't you tell me?" I demand._

"_This will be unlike anything any slayer before you has seen Madeline." The two of them say completely in sync with each other. "Beware Madeline, danger is at every corner you must be careful…" _

"_Of what?"_

_Odile and Lorraine both point to the man with the mannequin head. "Him."_

_And then I wake up screaming._

My bedroom door bursts open and the light comes on and in runs both my dad and Rory. I'm barely sitting up in bed by the time that they make their way over to me. "Maddie, are you okay?" Dad questions as the worry is very clear and apparent on his face, man probably thought I was being murdered in my sleep or something.

"Yeah dad, it was only a bad dream." I reply with a small shrug of my shoulders as I hear the sound of Ozzy and Magnus barking. Considering the fact that the two of them had put up permanent residence on my younger brother's bed, it was guaranteed that if I had managed to wake them up, then with their help I've also woken up Felix.

"You sure?"

"Dad I'm fine go check on Felix, he's probably losing his mind." I assure my dad and he places a kiss on the top of my head before excusing himself to go check in on Felix and probably help him get back to sleep. I wait until dad's out of earshot before I get out of the bed and turn to my brother Rory. "I had a dream."

"Duh Maddie, you ended up having some nightmare and ended up waking the whole house." Rory sarcastically replies whilst managing to roll his eyes at the same time, my brother loved sleeping so you could tell that he wasn't too happy at being woken up in the middle of the night or rather the early hours of the morning. Especially on a school day.

I shake my head, my brother really wasn't understanding what I was telling him so I'd tell him everything about what happened with Willis and us being here in mystic Falls and I knew he wasn't going to be too happy. Rory wasn't exactly thrilled that I was the 'chosen one' despite the fact he did think it was pretty cool. "It wasn't any normal dream Rory, it was like the dreams I used to get back home… I had a prophetic dream tonight."

"Yeah right…" Rory drawled tiredly through another yawn.

"They're here." I quietly state as I walk over to my dressing table and opening the middle drawer I pull out a navy velvet box.

"Whose here Maddie?"

"Vampires." I wearily reply as I open the box to reveal to a simple silver cross necklace and with a sigh I put it back on for the first time since I took it off three months ago. The cross was a gift from Cecile and a joke as we knew crosses didn't affect that vampire. It was also an homage to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who was without a doubt the most bad ass vampire hunter ever seen. I was pretty sure she could give me a good run for my money if she was real. "There here in Mystic Falls Rory, that's why we moved here, why I just had that dream..."

"Maddie we moved to this boring town because dad got a new job, just because you had some nightmare like the ones you used to have back home doesn't mean there are vampire here." Rory assures me.

"Yes it does Rory, we were brought here for a reason; dad's new job, us moving here and the dream are all connected. This town has a history of vampire attacks, which have been covered up over the decades as animal attacks and those attacks have started up again. After school when you were ahead of me, I met a man named Adrian Willis who revealed himself to be my new watcher. He told me that we weren't brought here because of dad's new job; we were brought here because I have to kill them."

Rory doesn't say anything for a while but instead just looks at me. "You said you quit."

"I did quit."

"Then why are you back in slayer mode, you told me that you had stopped with all this vampire killing and you promised me that no funny business would happen like it did back home." My brother demands in a hushed voice so dad and Rory wouldn't hear as they weren't exactly in the know about my status as the slayer.

"You think I want to be doing this? I don't want to be the slayer after happened back home but people are dying here Rory and I can't just ignore that and pretend everything's fine. This place is our home now and there are vampire here and if I have to kill them to keep you, Felix, dad and everyone else here safe then so be it."

"Maddie…"

"Rory you may not like this but I am the slayer." I say.

"Yeah I get it Maddie, you're the one girl in the world with the power to defeat the vampires and whatever goes bump in the night." Rory says with a reluctant sigh, he wasn't exactly thrilled as this prospect, which I knew he wouldn't be. "The watchers council?"

"Of course they like sticking their noses in when it's not wanted, you should see the watcher they sent me. I'm actually offended by the fact that they sent me someone so young and you should have seen him Rory. The guy quoted the prophecy to me as if I didn't already know it myself–"

"–I want to meet him, this new watcher of yours."

"Got it, I'll introduce you to him tomorrow but you have to be careful now Rory. I'm getting some more vervain and start putting it in our food, I'm going to make sure your all safe…"

Rory holds up the bracelet with vervain that I gave him when I first became the slayer to protect him and the rest of my family from being compelled by vampires, I had also given Felix and my dad similar ones. "I know the whole vampire drill Maddie, you don't have to give me the 'talk' again, once was enough for me…"


	5. Chapter 5

With a coffee in one hand, I wearily open my locker door to get my history and chemistry textbooks and place them in my bag. After what happened last night with the prophetic dream, I left the house pretty early this morning to find Wills and inform him about my dream. Despite my reservations about him, Wills was my watcher and with whatever danger was coming I needed to work with him to figure out what exactly I'd be facing. However neither of us could figure out the meaning of the dream at seven in the morning so Wills would keep working on it whilst I came to school. "Good morning Bonnie." I begin shutting my locker door to see Bonnie standing there.

"How did know that I was there?" Bonnie questions.

Heightened senses because of being the slayer but I couldn't exactly tell Bonnie that so I told her the next best thing. "Pure awesomeness, so what's up chica?"

"I know that we've only known each other one day but I need advice from someone with fresh eyes." Bonnie tells me and I try my best to remain neutral and not show how elated I was. I had been here for only one day and already people liked me and felt comfortable enough with me to seek me out for advice.

"Okay well I'll give it a whack, so what's going?"

"So Elena wants me to have dinner with her and Stefan tonight because she knows that I don't like him but it's only because I get this really weird feeling around him. I'm just trying to be a good friend after everything Elena's gone through in the last couple of months, I don't want her to rush into things and get hurt after everything she's been through…" Bonnie rambles and I could see why she was so worried, from what I been told Elena was in an accident with he parents a few months ago and she was the only survivor so it was only natural for Bonnie to be worrying about her.

"I see your point but whose the guy we're talking about?" I question.

Bonnie laughs. "He's new here like you Maddie, handsome broody guy whose in our history class? Him and Elena have been doing that whole gazing across the room towards each other thing."

"Rings a bell…" I say as I can't put a name to the face but I'd roll with it for a while, I'd spot the handsome brooding guy eventually. "So Elena wants you to have dinner with her and Stefan but your not too sure about this guy? Well… I see your point Bonnie and I'd be naturally weary too."

"But…" Bonnie begins before something catches her eye and she moves as to hide behind me and turning around I see that Elena plus the guy I assume to be Stefan as he fits the broody description come down the corridor towards us along with a guy I've never seen before whose laughing with the two of them

"Hey chica, whose the guy Elena and Stefan?" I ask.

Bonnie peaks over my shoulder in interest. "I don't know I haven't seen him before but he is hot, don't you think Maddie?"

Maybe, if you liked tall men with a strong defined jaw, dark curly hair and the body of a greek god and looked like they were a model for GQ. I knew they were guys that attractive somewhere in the world but in Mystic Falls of all places? Something was clearly wrong. "I'll admit that he's attractive." I casually admit as I turn back to Bonnie.

"Attractive? The guy is drop dead gorgeous Maddie and you know it!" Bonnie says and we both laugh before I notice her eyes widen in surprise. "Don't look now but the hottie is totally checking you out."

"Sure he is… he's just probably wondering why on earth my hair is so damn bright." I say sarcastically as I turn around and I am shocked to say the least that the new guy is looking at me and when he spots me he actually smiles. Okay, maybe Bonnie was right about this guy being slightly more than just attractive, he was most likely the most beautiful man I had ever seen but I wasn't here to day dream over beautiful boys. All though it did sound like it would be fun.

"If he's new, you should talk to him Maddie seeing as you're new as well, then the two of you could be new together." Bonnie suggestively says.

"I'm the new girl getting used to a strange new town so it's fine for me not to have a boyfriend, so what's your excuse Bonnie? How about we find you a boyfriend and I'll stick to enjoy the easy and single life." I retort as slaying and dating didn't exactly go hand in hand together, not that it bothered me as I was always weird girl back home so being by myself was nothing new.

"Very funny Maddie!" Bonnie says as her eyes widen once more and before I knew it she had turned around and was very walking away from me very quickly and looking to see that scared her away I see that it's Elena, Stefan and the mystery boy.

God damn you Bonnie Bennett. "Hey…" I wearily begin.

"Hey Maddie, you have a good first day?" Elena asked me.

Let's think about it; started a new school and the new teacher made fun of my hair, found out that everything that I had been running from had caught up with me in the name and shape of one Adrian Willis and that vampires were running around in this town. Not to mention the freaky dream that I had last night that warned me of emanate danger. So all in all it hadn't been a good day to say the least but I had come to expect this kind of freakiness ever since I had become the slayer. "It was interesting, to say the least…"

"Ready for rounds two with Mr. Tanner?" Stefan questions.

I scratch the back of my head. "I think I'm going to keep my head down as best as possible when it comes to him. Although I'm mighty proud of my victory yesterday, it wasn't really he best way to make a first impression…"

Elena and Stefan both smile at me and eyes wonder briefly over to the mysterious guy before I remind myself to stop looking at him and in order to do that I look down at my shoes. "Maddie, I'd like to introduce you to Stefan's cousin–"

"Christopher Salvatore." Mystery boy says holding out his hand and I just look at it as if it's some kind of foreign object that I've never seen before until I realize that everyone is waiting for me to respond.

"Madeline Olsen but everyone calls Maddie." I say shaking the guys' hands, which are incredibly soft and looking into his eyes and I notice that they are a pale shade of green. There was something too perfect about this guy, first the looks and now the soft hands; it was like he was the walking and talking version of perfection. It was rather annoying how someone could be so good looking

"Then feel free to call me Chris."

"Do you have any plans tonight Maddie?" Elena asked.

Figuring out this dream, training and doing some patrolling but that information wasn't not privy to most ears. "Um… unpacking some more, hanging out with my baby brother and walking our dogs."

"Well Stefan, Bonnie and I are having dinner at my house tonight and I just invited Chris to join us and seeing as your new as well, I thought it would be nice if you could join us, it would give us all a chance to get to know each other better."

"Bonnie mentioned that you were having dinner tonight." I say trying my hardest not to laugh but my voice goes up an octave and before I knew it I was laughing. "I don't know Elena, I don't want to be a bother and I promised my brother that we'd hang out and it's my turn to walk the dogs…"

"Madeline I'm not taking any excuses, you will be joining us for dinner tonight. End of story, come over at seven to help me and Bonnie prepare." Elena told me and I stood there dumbstruck before slowly nodding. I was the slayer, I fought and killed vampires on a daily basis yet as tough as I was, I somehow just forced into going into a dinner that I didn't particularly want to go to. Some bad ass I was…


	6. Chapter 6

I was kind of in trouble. Elena had kind of forced me into going to this dinner but I had told my dad that I was going to the library to do a late night study session to catch with what I had missed i.e. go to the other library and do some further research into this town and go out and patrol the four blocks that consisted of Mystic Falls. "Explain to me again why you can't fulfill your slayer duties tonight Madeline?" Wills asked with a disapproving tone to his voice.

"I kind of got roped into going to this dinner with some people from school and they didn't really take no for an answer. So there's your explanation, again…" I wearily say I pick up a random book off the counter and random flick through the pages until I realize that the book is in french. "Chill out Wills, it's one night…"

"Chill out? Madeline need I remind you that this town has a vampire problem and people are dying and you assured the sheriff and I that you'd take care of it. So neglecting your duties to go to a party with your friends doesn't fill me with much assurance. So I forbid you from going." Wills tells me in his big fancy english accent trying to sound like authority figure we both knew he wasn't.

"You forbid me? I already have a father and that's not you Wills, so you cannot exactly tell me what I can or cannot do. I may be stuck in this town for god knows how long so I plan to make the best of it. If I have the chance to be somewhat normal and make friends then I'm going to do it and for you information it's a dinner and not a party… Back home in San Diego, I didn't have any friends because of this slayer thing I was just that weird girl to everyone and do you have any idea how incredibly lonely that is? Sixteen years old and my only friend outside of my family was Cecile. I get that the all the books and prophecy say that I have to be alone but I don't want to have no one at my funeral whenever this slayer thing finally kills me." I determinedly state and Wills looks at me before sighing.

"Fine, do as you wish. Who am I to stop you except your lowly watcher?"

"Look I can do both, I'll go to this dinner and I will patrol straight after." I offer - as I make my way to the door - in order to compromise. "And whilst I do that why don't you find something else to do other than reading some books? Go to a bar, get a drink, lighten up…"

"I heard that Madeline…"

On my way out of the library I purposely ignored Wills, as I made my way to my car. I went home and packed a bag with all the things I would later need to go patrolling and walked the dog's before I left to go to Elena's. When I arrived at her house I actually stood outside for ten minutes leaning against my car debating whether or not I should I get back in my car and go home. Considering the fact I didn't really know the first thing about hanging out with people my own age, the closet person who I usually hung out with was Rory and even then there was a two year gap between the two of us. As I stood there I couldn't help but think of the funny side to it; here I was the big bad (technically rather good) slayer who had taken on countless amounts of vampires and other things that go bump in the night yet I was afraid of having dinner with four teenagers. Thinking about it I was completely pathetic and told me that I had been in the slayering business for too long if I was more afraid of humans than vampires. "Get a grip Madeline, just walk to the door and knock…" I tell myself as I note two people coming towards me from the corner of my eye.

"You know they say that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness." A voice says from the left of me.

"I don't know where you got that from, my dad says that it's a sure sign of ingenuity and I've tended to always believe that." I say as I look and see that it's handsome boy and brooding cousin from earlier. If they already thought I was crazy weird girl I should definitely go home. "Chris and Stefan, right?"

Chris slowly nods. "Correct."

"So… what are you doing out here Maddie?" Stefan says asking the one question that I wished he wouldn't have asked me because I was still trying to figure that one out for myself.

"Just need a few minutes to gather my thoughts together before I went, feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of this, the move and how kind everyone is. I'm not used to people being so nice to me especially when they've only known me for a few days." I somewhat honestly admit much to my surprise.

"Why don't you go ahead Stefan? I don't mind staying with Maddie until she feels ready to come inside." Chris offers and the two of them share a look that don't think I've caught but I have and I watch as Stefan slowly nods his head before leaving us and making his way up the path to Elena's porch.

"You know that you don't have to do this, I'm no damsel in distress. I'm more than capable of standing outside by myself. I did grow up in a city where the yearly crime rate is probably higher than Mystic Fall's for the last hundred years…" I note, I had been in this town less than three weeks and already I wanted to go back home.

"I was raised to be a gentleman and your probably right about the crime thing, this is a small town where big things rarely tend to happen." Chris begins and I quietly laugh. "So Elena told me that you've moved here from San Diego, why the move? If you don't mind me asking, it's just that San Diego is so big where as Mystic Falls isn't…"

"My dad got his dream job, teaching at his alma mater; the university of Virginia and after everything he's done for our family I couldn't exactly say no and he figured we could do with a fresh start. So here we are…" I wistfully say.

"What does your dad teach?"

"This is going to sound really lame but he is a professor of comparative literature, which sounds really geeky as my brother says but it's interesting after a while and my dad loves it. So if it makes him happy then who am I to complain? After all it does pay for everything and it gives my dad something to do with his time…" I say before I realize that I've been going on about it. "Sorry, bad trait I've picked up from my dad."

"Don't be, it sounds interesting." Chris tells me and I have to remind myself to stop looking at him. The guy was incredibly good looking and seemed to be nice and with no visible flaws which made it harder for me not to stop looking at him. "So you said that you had a brother?"

"I have two, both of them are younger than me. Rory is fifteen and Felix is eight. What about you any siblings?" I say in an attempt to divert the attention away from me and on to Chris.

"Sadly no, I'm an only child not for lack of trying my parents part, they wanted to have five kids but they only ended up with me. It's a shame as I always wanted a brother or a sister. So I was pretty lonely at times as a kid but I grew up with a big family so it's not that big of a deal anymore." Chris says as my mind wonders off on it's own accord on what it would be like if I was an only child and frankly it was quite scary. No Rory or Felix? No arguing about what cereal to buy or whose turn it is to empty the dishwasher not to mention no petty arguments. It was odd to think of a world that my brothers didn't exist, it made me feel more lonely than I already was. "Maybe we should go inside? We were both invited here so we could all get to know each other and the two of us are defeating that purpose by talking out here…"

"Oh? I was under the impression that this was about Bonnie and Stefan getting to know each other and the two of us being invited to make it less awkward." I blurt out and cringe immediately afterwards, I don't think I was supposed to say that but to my surprise Chris laughs.

"I knew that I just wasn't sure if you were aware of that."

"Perfectly aware of it, sadly."


	7. Chapter 7

I knew I shouldn't have come to this dinner because to say it was awkward was to put it lightly, it was like saying the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was just a ceiling or just a painting. It was that _bad._ Clearly Bonnie wasn't keen on Stefan and Elena was trying to force the conversation and so it was like rubbernecking for the rest of us and by that I mainly mean me. However the odd thing was that despite the fact that Bonnie didn't seem to like Stefan she seemed okay with Chris. But it was hard not to be, the guy was pretty damn charming. He could probably charm the clothes off my back if he honestly tried. "So what about you Maddie anything about your family? Or has Bonnie beat us all with the Salem witches thing?" Chris asks

"No not really, pretty boring actually. I don't think that anything could beat Bonnie considering that being descended from Salem witches is pretty amazing." I reply before taking a sip of my water. Bonnie Bennett, descended from witches? And Salem witches at that, I found that to be pretty interesting. I'd have to keep note of that. So Mystic Falls potential had vampires and witches, Wills would have a field day with this when I got round to telling him this bit of information.

"C'mon Maddie there must be something?" Bonnie says encouragingly whilst giving me a look, she was really pushing for this Chris thing much to my reluctance and Elena nods in agreement, so I was backed into a corner on this one I didn't know what to tell them as that I was the prophesied chosen one whose duty was to kill the living dead.

"Well my great grandfather Jesper was a part of the Danish resistance movement and he helped take part in the rescue of the Danish Jews and that's as interesting as it gets for the Olsen family. The rest of us have yet to do anything of greater value and honor." I say giving them perhaps the only interesting thing in my family's otherwise burning history.

"I'd say that it's pretty great Maddie." Stefan tells me and I wearily smile, I really hated talking about myself because then I had be careful of what I said because there were something I really couldn't talk about i.e. slaying.

"Care to explain to those who aren't major history buffs." Elena asks.

"During the war Nazi Germany occupied Denmark and during that time Hitler ordered the arrest and deportation of the Danish Jews. Danish resistance groups along with ordinary Danish citizens took part in rescue to help evacuate the Danish Jews by sea to Sweden. They manage to evacuate almost 8,000 of them and they say over 99% of Denmark's Jewish population survived the holocaust." Stefan says and I'll admit that he won me over with his whole Salem witches and how great they were speech but now he was just amazing in my eyes.

"So your Danish?" Chris states and the randomness of it causes me to laugh. "Your surname Olsen means son of Ole, right? And I'm pretty sure that I am right."

"Ja and that means yes in Danish, I also happen to speak and read Danish, if you're that interested Christopher." I quip and it causes the others to laugh but before anyone can reach the doorbell goes off and Elena gets up to go answer it.

"So Chris, do you have a girlfriend?" Bonnie asks as I'm taking a sip of water and I couldn't help but choke on it in shock in sheer embarrassment as I could not believe that Bonnie was asking him that. I was certain, no scratch that I was definitely going to die of embarrassment, which spared Bonnie the fate of me killing her.

Chris doesn't reply, in fact he's rather fixated on whoever Elena is talking to at the front door. "Stefan it's Damon." He finally said, his voice literally held no emotion in them and his face seemed rather stoic and hard in a manner of speaking.

"Who?" I mouth to Bonnie as I couldn't see anything from where I was sitting but judging by Chris' face and Stefan's reaction, this Damon person wasn't exactly popular with the two of them.

"Stefan's brother." Bonnie mouths back just in time as Caroline walks into the kitchen with Elena holding a cake followed by whoever this Damon guy is. And when he does I get a weird sense of déjà vu as if I've seen him somewhere before but for the life of me I can't place it. Which is weird as I'm pretty good with faces especially good looking ones, the Salvatore family sure as hell produced handsome boys…

"Hey everyone!" Caroline brightly begins and I couldn't help but smile, Caroline was always full or pep or something. "Girls I'd like you to meet Damon Salvatore, my boyfriend… Damon this is Bonnie Bennett and Maddie Olsen."

"Pleasure to meet you both." Damon replies and Bonnie just nods and smiles leaving me to say something in order to be polite.

"Have we met before? I feel as if I know you from somewhere." I say for god knows what reasons and Damon just looks at me carefully before he eventually smiling at me and it wasn't one of those genuine ones, it seemed more forced than anything.

"I don't think so, but if we had I'm pretty sure I would have remember the hair, pretty bright don't ya think?" Damon tells me and already I don't like him because of the aforementioned comment about the colour of my hair.

Great, somebody else starting on my hair when it wasn't even that bright anymore, I had been washing it a lot more than usual hoping that some of it's vivid brightness would go down. "That's the point, it makes easy for people to locate me when I get lost." I sarcastically reply.

"Nice necklace." Damon says pointing to my cross necklace, I gently finger my necklace for some kind of reassurance from the big bad good looking guy who liked to make fun of my hair. "Religious?"

"No."

"So it's for decorative purposes?"

"No."

"Forgive him Maddie, my cousin lacks any social graces or manners hence why we don't let him go out much. It's much safer for him to be inside and away from decent people because Damon can't behave himself." Chris says looking away from Damon for the first time since he stepped into the house, it wasn't too hard to see that Chris had a major problem with his cousin but the real question was, what was it?

"Ah Christopher. The prodigal cousin finally speaks, I was wondering when you'd finally open up that mouth of yours." Damon retorts.

Sensing a very hostile environment I figure it's the best time to for me to leave so I can keep my promise to Wills about patrolling tonight so I get up from my seat and make my excuse. "I think I'm going to head out a bit early."

"Maddie…" Elena begins.

"Sorry I can't stay and help clean up, I should really get home and catch my brother before he goes to bed but we'll do this at my place soon, I promise. As soon as the dining room table is assembled I'll have you over. Thank you for tonight Elena, I had loads of fun." I say and despite the fact that they all try to convince me to stay with Chris even managing to throw an insult at Damon and blame him for me wanting to leave, I convince them all otherwise and I do eventually manage to get myself out of the house. Climbing into my car, I stick my hand under my seat and pull out the stake I keep there just in case I ever needed. It was time to stop being the teenager who was hanging out with her friends. It was now hunting time.


	8. Chapter 8

Either vampires had gotten smarter or in the three months that I had stopped slaying or I had gotten incredibly rusty, I hoped it was neither of them but deep down I knew it was the latter. Three months is a long time for a slayer given the fact that we don't even know whether we'll see tomorrow and some slayers don't even last three months. Time works differently for us. You'd think given the fact that we know that we're not going to live long and could die at any time then we'd live life to the fullest but that was the problem, when you thought like that your priorities got mixed up. That's when you get sloppy and get killed because you can't even hold your own in a fight. Let alone find any trace of them despite the fact that I was able to three months ago – it was slayer skill, which took months to hone, but considering I stopped using it I was completely blind now. Rather frustrating without Wills lecturing me about it.

"Oh Madeline!" Elena begins in a sing song voice which causes me to smile as I stop in my step and wait for her to catch up with me. "There you are, I've been looking all over you."

"Hola Chica! Where's the uniform? You are a cheerleader and we are at the pep rally for the big game that's happening not long from now…" I question, as Elena was dressed a la casual instead of a la cheerleader.

"I quit. I wanted to have a fresh start and I started by quitting cheerleading but enough about me already Madeline, I want to know about you and Christopher Salvatore, the two of you really seem to have hit it off last night before you took off…" Elena begins and I immediately roll my eyes in bemusement, clearly she was on the Maddie and Chris train along with the lovely Bonnie Bennett.

I wearily sigh as the two of us walk, this was getting complicated for reasons that I didn't know why. "Look Elena, Chris is a nice guy and I will admit that he in incredibly good looking but not only did I just meet the guy I'm also not looking for a boyfriend."

"Maddie there is an obvious attraction between the two and he likes you from what I can tell. So why don't you just hang out with him and see how thing go. You never he could be your true love." Elena tells me and on reflex I scoff at the idea. "You don't believe in true love?"

"Nope." I honestly admit, I was one of those people who didn't believe in soul mates, Valentine's Day and general romance. I preferred to being independent and being able to rely on myself and I so did not need a boyfriend to make me happy. That's why chocolate and blankets were invented for.

"Such a cynic in a young age." Elena scolded, wagging her finger at me for good measures.

"My mom used to say that my dad was her true love but that didn't stop her from leaving? So yeah I'm a cynic when it comes to love and romance." I point out, leaving out the part that I don't exactly believe in marriage considering the fact my parents divorced changed my perceptions on love and marriage. Plus the fact that I will never get married as I'll probably be dead and the fact I'd have to find someone to marry me even though I don't date.

"I'm not telling you to marry him Maddie just give him a chance, Chris is a really good guy from what I've seen. He thinks you took off last night because he and Damon started trading insults after Damon made that comment about you hair and we know how your kind of sensitive about it." Elena reminds me and I blanch as I remember the other Salvatore brother coming in all cocky and making jabs at my hair as if he owed the place. Damon Salvatore was an utter jerk, it was hard to believe that Stefan and Chris as nice as the two of them were happened to be related to Damon. Judging by the animosity last night I was putting Damon down as the black sheep in the family. "And you know since your having a fresh start here maybe you should decided to drop this whole no dating thing."

"Fine! If it makes you happy the next time I see Chris I will let him know that it wasn't his fault that I left and see if he wants to hang out at the grill sometime but don't hold your breath on the dating thing. I'm just doing this because we're both new and new people need friends." I reply which makes Elena elated for some odd reason giving me the perfect opportunity to change the subject as I no longer felt like talking about one Christopher Salvatore. "Nice necklace."

"Thanks Stefan just gave it to me and it's got some really nice herb in it call Vervain." Elena tells me and my ears can't help but pop up in interest at the name of the herb that acts as a poison to vampires, vervain is toxic to them and wearing or ingesting it prevents a person being compelled by vampires.

"That was incredible nice of him." I say, as it didn't mean anything as vervain was used for plenty of things but putting it in a necklace? That was kind of weird but I chose not to comment on it because then I'd have to explain the reason why I thought it was weird. For now I was going to put this down as one of those weird things that you couldn't explain because in my line of work we didn't believe in consequences. I highly doubted that Stefan knew about the existence of vampires as teenagers these days are pretty stupid and oblivious to the obvious.


	9. Chapter 9

Mr. Tanner was dead. To put it quite simply, drained of blood and left discarded in the open like a piece of trash that no one wanted, Matt Donovan stumbled across his body. I was furious that Mr. Tanner was killed on my watch, as I was the freaking slayer! It was my job to prevent this. Danger and bloodshed, just like Lorraine and Odile said. I should have been able to sense that vampire despite the limited capacity that certain ability works in. Training with Wills was now more intense and I pushed myself even harder than this before, I was not going to be some vampires punk ass bitch because the skill set I required for this job wasn't up to scratch. That vampire was in a public space where not only were my friends and I there but also Rory and the reason why I returned to duty was to protect the people who lived here and my family. I really wanted to kill this vampire now. "Maddie?"

I turn to Felix whose eating an ice-cream as we walk Ozzy and Magnus through town, my brother was lucky he was eight years old and the only care that he had in the world was what book he was going to read at bed time. He was so innocent and sweet even with the ice-cream on his nose. "Yeah buddy?"

"I like it here, I have lots of friends and I get to play soccer." Felix says before taking another sip of his ice cream. "I like our house and playing with Ozzy and Magnus even school. Do you like it here?"

That was a difficult question to answer granted that I hated small towns, not to mention the fact this place was some kind of supernatural hub for vampires then there was the overbearing and pushy watcher who was always on my case. However the people here did seem nice and as much as I hate to admit it the place was growing on me, considering the grill served such good food. "I don't like it as much as I liked San Diego but it's growing on me especially since you like it." I reply as I tried not to lie to Felix if I could avoid and as such I tended to stretch the truth with him like the Santa Claus matter. He was still a believer whilst Rory and I weren't but I always said that I believed in the idea of Santa Claus.

"San Diego was too sunny." Felix comments as we go and sit down on a bench where his ever faithful and loyal companions lie by his feet. It was bizarre how much Magnus and Ozzy were attached to Felix, it was they were the three musketeers or father Felix was the dog whisper as they did whatever he asked.

"Is that so?" I question in amusement, I honestly wished that my brother would stay this size and adorable forever.

"Ja." Felix happily replies as he continues to eat his ice-cream and I watch him whilst managing to keep an eye on everyone whose in the square. This was a small town, which meant that I had to be on the look out constantly for vampires but on the upside it was easier to patrol then San Diego as Mystic Falls was considerably much smaller.

"Hey Maddie I thought that it was you, this your brother?" Chris asks pointing to Felix.

Taking my attention off Felix I see that Chris is standing just to the left of me and actually I'm quite glad to see him. After the whole Mr. Tanner thing we were given the rest of the week off and I had been using all that time to train so I hadn't seen anyone apart from Wills and my family. "Yeah it is. Felix can you say hello to my friend Chris?"

Felix who had finished his ice cream looked up and waved before turning to me. "Maddie can I go to the fountain and get some water?"

"Sure thing buddy but Magnus and Ozzy stay here with me and you might want to clean your face while your at it sport, you have ice cream all over your face." I say with a small nod and in a matter of seconds my brother was off the bench and off like a rocket.

"So how have you been? I haven't seen you around in couple of days and I heard that you were at the game?" Chris questioned as he sat down the seat that Felix had just vacated.

I appreciated Chris not coming out with 'how are you doing with the fact that our history teacher is dead because he was attacked by some wild animal?' question in front of Felix. We were trying to not lie to Felix but make him unaware of the situation as the kid would flip his lid if he found out despite the fact there was no wild animal on the loose. "Okay I guess, I didn't like Mr. Tanner despite the two days that I knew him but the guy didn't deserve what he got. How comes you weren't at the game? I would have thought you would have been there before it got cancelled considering that it was supposed to be Stefan's first game." I ask.

"I was on my way actual when it all happened." Chris replied and I slowly nod not sure of what to say next as the whole talking about how are teacher was used as a chew toy but some animal was a weird conversation topic even if it was a lie. "So about the other night at Elena's…"

"Chris you don't have to apologize, nothing you or Damon did caused me to leave not that you did anything in the first place. I just had some things to care of and I'm trying to be responsible between getting a balance between it and having a social life." I honestly state.

"I just can't help myself when it comes to Damon, he pushes my buttons and always has and I tell myself that I shouldn't rise to it but I can't help it. He may be my cousin but Damon is something else entirely." Chris says with a sigh.

"Rory and I are like that at times or we used to be up until a few months ago until we came to an understanding. But families aren't supposed to be easy Chris, they're supposed to drive you crazy that's why they're called your family." I assure him as Felix comes running back to me and plops himself at my feet in order to play with the dogs.

"The crazy part is certainly true." Chris begins before turning to me. "Hey do you plans for tomorrow? I'm only asking because tomorrow night is the annual founders party and it's being thrown by the Lockwood's as they are one of the founding families–"

"Aren't the Salvatore's one of the founding families?" I interrupt.

Chris smiles no doubt surprised at the fact that I knew that tidbit of information but I also knew about this party, Sheriff Forbes had come over to the 'library' this morning to tell Willis and I about this historical society party being thrown by the founding families to celebrate the town's history. I was going to use the party to scope out the locals and do some re con and see if any vampires turned up later. "We are but we don't exactly get invited that often but I'm going and I wanted to know if you wanted to go with me.

"Chris…" I begin.

"We can go as just friends."

"No it's not that Chris I'd actually love to be your date, it's just that I was going to originally say that I'd have to find a dress that wouldn't clash with my rather vibrant hair." I reply, I was following Elena's advice and taking a chance with Chris and besides this party would give me a chance to get to know him better. I figured that if I wasn't going to be the same girl that I was back in San Diego I might as well do things that I might not have done back then, I suppose. Plus it was killing two birds with two stone.


	10. Chapter 10

"So your telling me the Lockwood's have always sat in office of Mayor and the Forbes have always held the position of Sheriff? This is quite a picturesque little town we live in Christopher, I'm starting to feel like we in a Stephen King novel or better yet that film Groundhog day…" I not in amusement as Chris as I walk around the Lockwood's mansion taking in all the pieces that are a part of the apparently magnificent history of Mystic Falls.

"Yeah. This picturesque is town is pretty boring as nothing ever changes in town."

"And what about the Salvatores? Where do they fit in the founding families?" I question, as this little town was growing even freakier by the second. No wonder this freaky place had a supernatural problem. It was actually quite funny the more that I actually thought about. It was the perfect place for a Hellmouth. I guess it's true about what they say about the quiet one, always the ones you'd least suspect…

"Well we had a little fall from grace a while back and we haven't exactly bothered to get up from it, so we're kind of at the bottom of the founding families most likely, the Salvatores are kind of the black sheep of the founding families. Which is why we live in a quite isolated area and don't get invited to any of these events anymore." Chris explains and in an odd way I get it seeing as I was weird loner girl last year, completely isolated and never invited to any parties as my life revolved around slaying back in San Diego.

"Well speaking on behalf of all the fellow social outcasts there are out there, I have the pleasure of informing you that we humbly except you." I say with a laugh as I pick up a grape from one of the tables with food and pop it into my mouth.

"A beautiful girl like you an outcast? Forgive me if I say that I don't buy that for a second." Christ tells me and I have to look down so he can't see me blush as given the colour of my hair at the moment, whenever I blushed my face matched my fair. Which was very embarrassing for me but a source of amusement for others.

"Believe it. I've always been different and stood at the crowd for as long as I remember and it was never in a good way. I tried my hardest to fit but no one wanted to be friends with me so when I turned twelve I gave up, my dad always told me it was there loss and so I embraced the whole weird loner chick thing and then I took it once step further by dying my hair and here we are now." I say with a small chuckle.

"This must be weird for you then? Moving to a new town and having people want to be your friends." Chris noted.

"I don't know." I reply with a small shrug of my shoulders, my situation here in this town was weird." I'm still waiting to wake up and discover that this whole week had been a dream and it's my first day again. But if this isn't a dream then I'm pretty certain I'll end up screwing it up in someway or another because things don't exactly go to plan with me. There's always something that comes in and messes up my life when I think it's somewhat going well."

"Well this isn't a dream Maddie and you won't screw this up because we all like you and even if you screw up, friends forgive each other so don't worry about it." Chris assures me and I can't help but laugh, this guy was unbelievable in more way than one. "Just be yourself that's all we–"

"–Oh god… my dad is coming over, I apologize for anything he does which you find weird or embarrassing but that is my dad in a nutshell." I say as I fight the urge to flee, my dad found out that I was coming here with Chris from Rory who was told in turn by Felix. It was too late to go anywhere now so I would just have to grin and bare it, hopefully my dad would get distracted by something historical and wonder off.

"Ah Maddie there you are, whose your friend?" Dad asks and I roll my eyes in bemusement dad was quick, I certainly had to give him that. But then again what father wouldn't be when he 'comes' across his only daughter out on a date who a guy who looks the way that Chris does. I just hoped that thus would be over quickly.

"Christopher Salvatore, it's a pleasure to meet you Dr. Olsen or would your prefer Professor?" Chris immediately began holding out his hand for my father to shake and being his usual polite self

"We're not in a classroom so Dr. Olsen is just fine Christopher." Dad says as he shakes Chris hand before stopping to eye him carefully and looking at him I see that there is a twinkle in his eye, which can only mean one of two things. The first is that he's just discovered something and the second is that there are krispy kremes somewhere in the room. I was betting that it was the first one. "Salvatore you say? Like the founding family?"

"Yes Sir, one in the same." Chris replies.

"I'll be! I've been doing some research into to the history of this town and I have to say it is utterly fascinating–" Dad begins no doubt going into a full blown lecture about how much he loves history and how Mystic Falls was the best place to come given it's rich history. As bad as it was I quietly slipped away to go get myself a drink and get myself together.

"I hear somebody is here on a first date with a certain boy that she claimed she had no interest in. I see you've changed your mind about Chris." I hear from behind me and I roll my eyes in a bemused manner as I slowly turn around to face Bonnie who is standing there watching me along with Elena's rather cool and funny Aunt Jenna. I had been expecting this, I just didn't think that Bonnie would wait till the actual said 'date' to come and gloat about it especially since said 'date' is being bored to death by my father.

"Don't say that." I reply as I try my hardest not to smirk but it's rather hard as I can feel it tugging at my lips, I had to remain nonchalant about this and make no bigger deal out of it than the one already being made, I had come as Chris' date it didn't mean that we were getting married.

"What?" Bonnie says feigning ignorance but we all know that we know what I'm talking about.

"First date."

"Why?"

I shrug my shoulders as I carefully survey the room and notice Sheriff Forbes coming out of one of the rooms, I'd have to grab Wills from wherever the hell he was hiding around here – probably the library knowing him – to have a chat with the good Sheriff about the whole story about a mountain lion being responsible for Mr. Tanner's attack. I actually still couldn't believe that the people in this town were that stupid to believe it. "Because it implies that there will be more, when we don't know that because this is just a date."

"And who is the lucky man who's managed to sweep you off your feet since you've arrived Maddie?" Jenna enquires, if ever there was a skeptic then it was Jenna. We were kind of like two peas in a pod when it came to this stuff.

"Christopher Salvatore."

Jenna's eyes widen in surprise, no doubt she wasn't expecting to hear that. It seemed like most of the town knew who Stefan and Damon were but not little or in his case the rather tall Christopher. "Another Salvatore? I thought that there was only three of them?" She asked referring to their Uncle Zach who they all lived with, according to the information provided to me by one Caroline Forbes.

"He's Stefan's cousin." Bonnie informs her. "Really good looking not to mention charming, you should just see the way he looks at her Jenna–"

"Yeah well that may change once my father is done with him." I say with a shake of my head.

"Dad? Maddie, you let your date alone with your dad?" Bonnie demands and her reaction is so funny that Jenna and I both start laughing, I know it sounded bad but I'm pretty certain that just by confirming he was from one of the founding families, Chris had won my dad over. Hopefully.


	11. Chapter 11

I wondered around the Lockwood mansion by myself for a further twenty minutes until Chris manages to find me and when he did, he had a rather bemused look on his face. Probably due to the fact that I did just leave him with my dad and took off. "Sorry about that it's just that it's every man, woman and child for themselves when my dad starts going on about history and I saw an opportunity… but what did my dad say? I'm betting it's something embarrassing…"

"It depends on your definition of embarrassing, he invited me over to dinner tomorrow nigh so that I could tell him about my family's history as well as the town's, your dad's quite the history buff isn't he?" Chris tells me.

I go on one date and already dad is inviting him over for dinner? That wasn't going to end to well… "To say that Papa Olsen is really into history is putting it lightly, my dad is crazy smart, along with the degrees that led up to his PhD he also has a BA in European history and a Masters in Colonial North American and United States history, both from Yale I might add. He had his two masters by the time he was twenty-seven and started his PhD when he was twenty-eight and earned two after his thirtieth birthday.

"Your dad's a genius."

"Pretty much. He's the smartest man I know and I'm not saying that just because I'm his daughter." I say as the two of us begin walking and as we do I notice that my dad is in a very animated conversation with Wills who seems like he's enjoying himself. That was quite possibly the most depressing sight I had ever seen; my father speaking to my watcher and he had no idea who he was. I turn my attention away from them and back to Chris whose picking up two champagne flutes and I notice the ring on his hand.

Chris must have caught me staring at it for far too long because when I looked away he offered me an explanation as he handed me a glass of champagne. "Family ring. Every male born into our family gets one, it has the family crest on and while I think it is a very ugly ring and I'm not really into these kinds of things as I find them incredibly cheesy, my father Cesare gave his ring to me. It's one of the few things that I have of his and so after he died I started wearing it so I could be closer to him…"

"Your dad meant a lot to you, I get it completely Chris you don't have to explain it to me at all, my dad means everything to me too. He's actually my hero."

"Really, why?"

"It's a long story and I don't want to offload my issues on you." I reply with a small shrug of my shoulders as we make our way outside to the large tent that has been set up on the Lockwood's estate.

"Try me." Chris says with a gentle prod.

I down my drink before I speak, this was one of my least favourite topics to talk about and there was a lot of resentment on my part. "My mom left us not long after Felix turned two, she just got up one day and left us, the note that she left said she couldn't do this anymore. It hit my dad the hardest, I remember most of it as I was ten at the time, Rory was Felix's age and Felix was a toddler. Dad struggled as mom was the love of his life, thinking back on that time he probably would have had a mental breakdown if it wasn't for us. He was so sad but he always did his best to hide it from us and he worked his hardest to provide for us and be there for all three of us. Dad never said a bad word about mom once or made her out to be the villain in all of this but in my books the hero is the one who stays."

"Have you heard from your mom since you left?" Chris questioned.

"Once. Earlier this year on Felix's eighth birthday she sent him a birthday card that said I'm sorry, happy birthday love mom. Six years, it took her to say she was sorry…" I say as I wrinkle my nose in irritation.

"Nothing for you?"

"I don't need a birthday card from her and to be honest I prefer the fact that she hasn't got in contact with me, if I ever saw my mother again I'd punch her as hard as I could. Because you don't walk out on your family like that, it's just not something you do… But it's Rory and Felix that I worry about, she can't send a card to one son and not the other, it's not fair on Rory not to mention it confuses Felix. He barely remembers her and this card of hers, brought up a lot of unwanted trouble and stress." I say with a shake of my head."

"Well if it isn't little Christopher and his date." Damon says as he makes his way over to us and after looking glares with Chris he turns his attention over to me. "You know, my cousin seems to be taken with you Madeline, which is very surprising…"

I must admit that this interests me so I decided to go along with Damon, despite knowing full well that this may end with another joke at Chris or my expense, perhaps even both of us. "Really? And why's that. Let me guess, it's because of my hair and Chris doesn't usually go out with red heads? But then again we all know that this isn't my natural hair colour."

"No. He just hasn't shown interest in anyone in close to forever and then you appear and bam! Christopher is showing some sign of life."

Was Damon seriously telling me that Christopher did not date despite how he looked? I found that very hard to believe and if he lived in San Diego he'd have queues of girls lining up to go out with him for the duration of his natural born life. "What can I say? My timing is impeccable." I quip, much to the amusement of Damon and Chris, whose cracked a smile since Damon joined us.

"So Red, any idea where you think you know me from?"

"Cedar Hill." I announce much to my surprise and Damon's because I don't even know what Cedar Hill is, let alone where it is. If it even exists. "Forget I even said that I don't even know where that came from, it must be the champagne going to my head…"

Damon quietly laughs. "Well keep thinking Red and let me know when you finally figure it out and whilst you're at it, be gentle with Christopher. He's such a shy and sensitive boy, I'd hate to see his heart get broken."

With a final look at the two of us Damon walks away and Chris turns to me and rolls his eyes in what is either annoyance or amusement. Him and Damon, really didn't get along for some reason. "Moron…"

"Funny. I was going to say asshole but then I realized not matter how much I dislike Damon he is your cousin after all." I quip because you can't really insult other people's relatives right in front of them; it just wasn't nice or polite. It was something that Mr. Tanner would do if he were still here.

"I was just being polite but that works just as well, perhaps even better." Chris says as he holds out a hand to me. "Care to dance Miss Olsen?"

I should really being looking around and scoping the place out not to mention the people here as I'm supposed to be on the lookout for anything suspicious to help me narrow down who could be the mystery vampire in town. But I look at Chris and I can't find it in myself to say not to him. "I'd love to Mr. Salvatore.


	12. Chapter 12

Making my way out of school I'm caught by Bonnie who links her arm with mine and proceeds to walk out of the building with me and we make our way towards the car park. I've known her two weeks but it felt like longer. "So Maddie, you and Chris have been hanging out quite a lot recently. I saw the two of you having dinner there last night…"

"We've been hanging a lot and just having fun." I admit and it causes Bonnie to beam, given the fact that she's been the number one supporter of Chris and Maddie since day one. "Chris is a great guy and so I figured that I'd give in to yours and Elena's never ending non subtle hints, advice and nudges so I'm letting my guard down and seeing where this could go. He didn't run away when it came to having dinner with my family and so I'm taking that as a good sign."

"So we have handsome, kind, smart and approved by the family. He sounds like a winner out of the three Salvatore's but give me the really good details Maddie, I'm the single one out of all four of us and it is killing me! I bet Chris is a really good kisser." Bonnie questions and I can't help but laugh.

"There hasn't been a kiss… yet, I've kind of been apprehensive about it but it'll happen once I stop chickening out of it. I'll keep you posted about it but what was that comment about Chris being the winner out of the rest of the Salvatore's?" I question as I got a really weird vibe from it after Bonnie had said it, I didn't know why but there was something about it that just sounded really off fro some reason.

"You remember how I told you that I got that weird feeling about Stefan? Then the night that we had dinner at Elena's he won me over with the Salem witches thing… you remember when Damon and Caroline arrived and then there was that thing with him and Chris?" Bonnie questioned and I simply nodded. "After you left things got weird, from what I've heard from Elena, both Damon and Stefan dated the same girl and she died and that's why that hate it other. But something happened the night of the heritage party and I think Damon is involved."

The party at the Lockwood's house? The Sheriff along with her deputies had been on the look out for who didn't show up to the party as possible vampires but none of their leads had panned out. I was still working on this vampire sensing skill of mine and it wasn't making any progress either so we were really back to square one on this vampire front. Did I miss something? "What happened Bonnie?"

"It's Caroline. Elena found her later on in the night and she was confused and dazed not to mention she had all these bite marks all over her back and neck but here's the weird thing, she can't remember how she got them and she doesn't want to talk about it. She just wants to pretend that everything is fine." Bonnie tells me and honestly I'm stunned, I've hung out with Caroline plenty of time the last couple of days, I even helped her study for the test we had in biology and nothing seemed wrong.

"And you think Damon is responsible for it?" I summarize.

Bonnie shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know maybe. All I know is that he is a bad idea for Caroline. He is years older than her and there's just something off putting about him and even his own family don't get along with him."

I open my mouth to reply but I'm interrupted by Rory who comes running up to us and snatched my car keys out of my hand. "Could you please hurry up Madeline?"

"I'll be there in a moment." I tell my brother and he runs off with my keys back in the direction of my car and so I turn my attention back to Bonnie. "Well I'll try and talk to Chris and see what he knows and try to figure how to deal with the Caroline and Damon thing. I promise I won't say a thing to Caroline about of this."

"Thanks Maddie."

I leave Bonnie and head towards my car and a few minutes later I'm pulling out of the car park and driving Rory and myself home. "Hey what's wrong with you? You're being really pensive all of a sudden? Is it something to do with the vampires in town?" Rory questions.

"No it's not that, it's just normal teenage girl problems. At least I think they are… but the vampire thing is kind of worrying, as I've still found no trace of it and I'm doing all this training but no there is no vampire for me to kill. I'm getting very restless over it and I really just want to kick some vampire ass'. I'm going patrolling tonight so there may be something…" I admit, despite the fact I'd rather not have Rory know about this whole vampire thing, it was nice to have someone to talk about it who was close to my age. For as young as Wills was, the man was still twelve years older than me.

"Oh? So no date with the boyfriend tonight then?" My brother quips.

"He's not my boyfriend." I immediately respond with, narrowing my eyes at my brother. Why was everyone in my life so quick to label Christopher Salvatore as my boyfriend?

"That's not what dad and Sophia seem to think, not to mention Felix." Rory tells me referring to our dad, housekeeper and younger brother, all three of them seemed to loved Chris whilst Rory just wasn't phased about any of it and just went about his usual business.

"Whatever. All I know is that I'm taking a nap when we get in before dinner and then I'm going to go on patrol. I'm going to tell dad that I've gone to the library to study or something, I don't know. I need to figure out some decent lie to tell him…"

"Do you ever feel bad for lying to everyone you love about this?" Rory randomly asks and I look at him and I see that he's being deadly serious about this.

"I used to, but not anymore." I admit with a heartfelt sigh. "When I first began slaying and I had no clue what I was doing or how to handle this I felt guilty for lying every time I left the house. But over time I stopped feeling guilty about it because I'm doing this to protect you, dad, Felix, Sophia and everyone else I love. Most people won't be able to handle the truth about me and my existence so I prefer to tell them a beautiful lie then give them the ugly truth."

"Then why tell me Maddie? Out of everyone why tell me the big bad secret?" Rory questions.

"Because you're the only person I've never been able to lie to and you're the only person that I trust to keep this secret. That's why Rory."


	13. Chapter 13

_I knew straight away once I appeared in the diner that this wasn't going to be a normal dream. It was one of the prophetic dreams, I get as part of my role as being the slayer but unlike the previous dream the diner was empty this time apart from Lorraine, Odile and a girl with brown hair and grey eyes who I had never seen before. "What's going on here? Why am I here again."_

"_Time is running out." The new girl told me with a melancholy look on her face._

"_Madeline, this is Juliette. She is one of us and died as one of us. Killed by a vampire in 1937, she was seventeen just as you are now." Lorraine explained to me and I slowly nodded, so now I was dreaming of another dead Slayer now. Something was seriously wrong if Lorraine, Odile and now Juliette were hunting my dreams all at one._

"_You have to stop him Madeline. He lives in your town and walks around like a man although his is not one and time is running out for another…" Odile warns._

"_Stop who? You keep warning me of this person who is bringing danger and bloodshed but I can't find him. I look and I try to sense him but I'm not getting anything, so you need to help me! How is he?" I demand, as much as I appreciated the warning there was no way I could stop the impending danger if they didn't give me something to help figure it out._

"_The one who killed us." Juliette announced._

"–_Wait? You were all killed by a vampire?" I slowly state, this was unbelievable but yet I knew that they weren't lying to me about this. "The same vampire killed all three of you and he is living in my town? Is he coming to kill me?"_

"_No. He does not know of you yet Madeline and even when he does, he will not be able to defeat you. Maddie, you have your own strength and power of that stronger than any slayer before you. But you do not stand alone, our sisterhood of slayers all stand behind you and we give you the wisdom and knowledge of all the battles we have fought. You can do this. You are the chosen one and we believe in you." All three of them chime together and I tearily nod, I didn't know it was possible to cry in dreams but here I am. Juliette, Lorraine and Odile all point to the end of the diner and I nod at them before slowly walking away._

"_Good luck Madeline." Odile tells me._

"_Be Strong." Lorraine adds._

"_Remember you are not alone." Juliette chimes._

_I continue to walk down to the end of the diner where the mannequin head in the leather jacket is sitting and I slide into the booth and take the opposite seat. Like usual all I see is the plain white head but after a few moments, features starts appearing. First it's the blue eyes, then messy dark hair and after a few moments a hand appears on the table and on it's middle finger it has a ring, with a blue stone and a crest on it. One that I've seen many times before. I look back at the mannequin's face and I see that all the features are formed and I'm shocked to see that I know who it is. Damon Salvatore._

My eyes immediately bolt open and I sit up in bed, it's dark outside and I look at my clock and see that it says 8:37pm. I had been sleeping for over five hours, I don't take time to ponder the meaning of my dream as I slide on my converse and my hoodies before grabbing the small bag of mine that contained various stakes and my car keys before I ran downstairs. "Hey! I'm going out, I'll be back later…" I yell.

"Maddie, aren't you going to eat? You slept right through dinner…" Rory asks as he makes he way over to me as I'm about to walk right out the door.

"Rory, do not leave the house. Do not let anyone into the house or let them leave until I get back, is that clear?" I hiss, keeping my voice down low so Dad and Felix who are watching tv can't hear me.

"What's going on Maddie?" Rory demands.

"Look I can't tell you right now, I have to go and deal with something Rory so just do what I say and make sure no one leaves and none one comes in to the house. And by that I mean anyone, I don't care if they've been invited in before just don't let them in until I come back. Do you understand me Rory?" I demand.

"Yeah… jeez, Maddie I get it. Don't let anyone in the damn house–" Rory begins but I leave the house before he can even finish. I get in my car and drive straight to the 'library' where the lights are still on but the door is locked and I bang on the door repeatedly.

After a few moments Wills comes out the back and opens the door. "Madeline, honestly what is with all the noise?"

"I know who the vampire is." I state as I walk into the bookshop and straight past Wills and head into the backroom, where I start looking for a particular weapon that I want, which I know is here as I could so not take it home with me. "It's the Salvatore's."

"Excuse me Madeline… how on earth do you know that?"

"They showed me." I say with a shake of my head as I contain to search the back room for this weapon I was searching for. I wanted to cause the Salvatore's pain for what they did and stakes and crossbows just didn't seem to cut it today

"You're going to have to expand a bit on that Madeline, I'm going to need some more information if we're going to accuse one of the founding families on this town of being vampires." Wills pointed out to me.

"Odile, Lorraine and Juliette. Three slayers who were active between the 1920-60's and he killed them Wills. Damon killed them. That's why I've bee having these prophetic dreams because they were trying to warn me about the attacks and Damon being responsible for them. I just woke up from a prophetic dream ten minutes ago and they showed me him, they told me he was the one to kill them! I should have realized this sooner!" I yelled.

"What are you talking about Maddie? How could you have realized…" Wills asked.

"Because Stefan, Christopher and Damon Salvatore all wear these family rings on their middle fingers and the stone in the rings are lapis lazuli, they pretend that they are family trinkets. Stefan then gave Elena Gilbert a necklace that is filled with vervain and Damon Salvatore is using Sheriff Forbes daughter Caroline as a personal blood back. Not to mention I'm pretty sure that the recent attacks will correspond with them coming back to town." I state with a shake of my head.

"Right then I'll call the Sheriff…" Wills says with a small nod.

"No your not because this goes beyond this town having a Hellmouth, Damon Salvatore killed three slayers which makes his personal and I'm going to go kill all the them. Right Now."

"Madeline what about Chris, you and him are –" Wills begins.

"–Where's the scythe?" I demand changing the subject; I didn't want to hear about Christ because that just made everything worse. I, the slayer had gone on a date with a vampire, let him into my house and have dinner with my family and I. Currently I wasn't sure who I wanted to kill more at the moment him or Damon.

"The scythe? Madeline I really don't think that is a good idea."

"Well it's a good thing I wasn't asking your opinion because like reads on the scythe _It's not for thee. It is for her alone to wield. _Now show me what damn box it's in so I can go kill some vampires." I retort as I let out a loud puff, I was seriously pissed off and Wills wasn't exactly helping with that which just made me lash out even more.

"Here it is…" Wills said moments later as he pointed to a long and narrow crate that was sitting under several boxes. Moving the boxes away, Wills opened the crate before stepping away. The scythe was an ancient weapon that was designed for and belonged to the first slayer and was passed down through the ages to each slayer who was called. The scythe embodied the essence of the slayer and our power to the point that only the slayer could wield it. To anybody else they couldn't even lift it. The scythe actually resembled a battle axe with a red, steel head and a sliver edge on the border of the blade, a steel bar holding the head with nails stamped along it and reaching down was a brown haft that had a simple wooden stake bellow it connected via an assembly of metal spikes.

Picking up the scythe by it's steel bar handle it felt right, because I knew it belonged to me and I turned to Wills but I was addressing both him and the scythe. "Let's go kill the Salvatore boys…"


	14. Chapter 14

"Madeline, I really must object to this. You don't know whether or not the Salvatore's are really vampires, the evidence is circumstantial at best despite the fact that you have the word of the three slayers who claim that Damon Salvatore killed. Plus you don't know whether they're in the house not to mention whether or not there are anymore vampires in the house." Wills tells me as I park my car at the bottom of the Salvatore's driveway.

"That's why I'm the slayer and you're the watcher Adrian, I do all the hard work so you don't have to. All you're supposed to do is watch whilst I kick some vampire ass." I say as I climb out of the car and reach into the back and grab the scythe.

"I know that your not going to listen to reason but just tell me that this isn't about Christopher Salvatore. Tell me that this isn't because you were becoming involved with him and as the slayer you couldn't tell that he was a vampire."

"Whatever feelings I may have had for Christopher Salvatore doesn't change the fact that he and the rest of his family are vampires. It's the slayer's job to kill vampires and I'm going to do that not just so this town can rest easy but so that Lorraine, Odile and Juliette get the peace and justice that they deserve. This isn't about me Wills; I'm doing what's best for the greater good. People are getting hurt and dying because of the Salvatore brothers and I have the power to stop them."

"Okay. I believe you, I just wanted to check because if you going in there and your not focused on the task at hand because your too preoccupied with Christopher Salvatore then you'll get yourself killed and put me out of a job." Wills tells me.

I lean over and pinch Wills cheek. "Aww… your worried, that is so sweet. But a word of advice, you losing your job is kind of inevitable however there is no need to worry as I can handle this."

"I don't doubt that but just to be safe, I want you to take this." Wills replies as he hands me over a stake and I look it at and then the stake at the end of the scythe and the whole thing seems redundant but I take it any. It was lighter that the scythe anyway.

"Stay here. This won't take long." I say as I shut my door and make my way up the Salvatore's drive way and once I reach the front door I contemplate how to enter. Before deciding to kick my way, the force is hard enough to open the door and create a lot of noise but not enough force to knock the door off it's hinges. That should be enough to get their attention. Walking through the doorway I made my way into a parlor of some sorts that looked like it was straight out of some Agatha Christie novel. It was honestly weird. I looked around the room for a bit until I noticed Damon strolling into the living room with an amused look on his face. "Salvatore…"

"Red, what a surprise… what can I do for you today?" Damon questioned.

"Cedar Hill. Forty three years ago, you took something that didn't belong to you, something that had an effect and my little friend and I thought that we should all have a conversation about it." I say giving the scythe a small shake but Damon doesn't reply and instead he lunges at me using his super speed and the two of us go crashing into the wall before falling to the ground. I may not have the speed that vampires do but I definitely stronger than them and so dropping the scythe I punch Damon in the face several times.

"How do you know about Cedar Hill?" Damon demands as he flips me over and stands up and starts kicking me in my ribs and take a few to the face

"None of your damn business." I retort as I kick Damon in his knees causing him to stumble back and I roll on my back and using my palms I push myself back onto my feet and kick Damon to the ground. Scrambling around I look for the scythe but it's too far from me and I pick up the stake that Wills gave me and attempt to stake Damon but he moves away and I manage to stake him in the abdomen.

"You bitch!" Damon groans in pain.

I laugh as I walk over to Damon and plunge the stake in further before locating the scythe and swing it a few times before making my way back over to Damon. "Trust pissing me off isn't going to help your case, I was going to make your death quick and easy but given what you've done, why should I? I think I'm going to enjoy myself with this–"

"–Maddie? What are you doing here?"

I turn around and see Stefan standing around looking at the scene between Damon and I. "Oh nothing much, just about to kill your brother before proceeding with the rest of your family." I quip and I can see the wheels in Stefan's head turning and my slayer senses were definitely on top form as I could see that he was going to attack me. Mere seconds after he came towards me I plunged the stake end of the scythe into his chest – unfortunately not close enough to heart but nevertheless he falls to the ground, not to far from Damon.

"I-I can't believe that you're a vampire… you of all people!" Damon huffs in an annoyed tone of voice.

"I'm not a vampire." I state, not sure whether to be insulted by that or not because I physically stronger than vampires and my senses were rather good as were the rest of my slayer abilities. So I think I was offended as I kicked vampire ass and yet I was being mistaken for one especially by Damon of all people.

" –Wait… you're human?" Stefan asks and I nod my head.

Damon rolls his eyes in disbelief. "Don't believe her crap, she's obviously lying to you so we won't kill her."

"You kill me? From what I remember I have you both pinned on the ground and your both injured. So I'm not really worried about you trying to kill me." I quip in amusement, I loved the banter part of the slaying process, it was one of the things that made the job fun.

"If you're not a vampire then what are you? A hunter?" Stefan questions.

"Red? A hunter? As if." Damon laughs.

And I shake my head and laugh, I wasn't sure if I was amused or insulted that they hadn't figured it out already. "Well it's something like that but I'm not a hunter, I'm _the_ hunter. I'm pretty sure you've heard of me or at least my job title and description... '_Into every generation, there is a Chosen One. One girl in all the world. She alone will wield the strength and skill against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness; To stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. She is the Slayer.' _I recite.

Stefan and Damon both pale before looking each at other before turning back to me. "You're the slayer." Stefan states uneasily.

"Damn straight, I am." I say before I knew it Damon had pulled out the stake in his abdomen and had me by the neck and up against the wall.

"What's going on here?" The unmistakable voice of Christopher Salvatore states as he looks around the room. All three of us were bleeding and my feet were 2ft away from the floor and Damon's hand was pressing tightly against my throat until he let me go and I dropped to the ground.

"What the hell?" Damon demanded as he looked at his scorched hand.

I finger my cross necklace in a rather smug manner, payback was a complete and utter bitch."I told you there's a reason I wore this and it wasn't for decorative purposes; it's coated in vervain."

"Oh look Red, it's your boyfriend." Damon began before turning to Chris. "You have really funny taste in women Christopher…"

"He's not my boyfriend Salvatore and I swear to god I am going to kill you…" I retort as I use Damon's distraction to kick him in his stomach and doing a quick tuck and roll I grab the stake that I had stabbed Damon with.

"Just in case you haven't realized Chris, dear sweet Madeline here is the slayer." Damon announces and his lack of response garners all of our attention. He didn't actually seem surprised by this.

"You knew?" Stefan asked.

"I had my suspicions." Chris replied.

"Well talk about that why you didn't tell us later but right now I'm just going to have to kill Red over her, last thing we need is her around." Damon announces.

"Damon no, you can't kill her –" Stefan tells him.

"It seems like you're memory isn't what it used to be, seeing as you've killed three slayers already Damon but Stefan knows what will happen. I die and another one is called and so on, we'll just keep on coming… Because your little watchers council was the one who had me brought here." I state and the look on the three Salvatore brother's face tells me everything. "You didn't know?"

"The town knows about us?" Chris asks.

"Question seems a bit redundant if I'm standing here about to kill all of you. The animal attacks, people may be dumb enough to believe all those people were killed from a mountain lion but it caught some very important people's attention; people who knew the signs and they also knew about the council and strings were pulled and now here I am…"


	15. Chapter 15

"So if the town knows about us, what is the chance that they know about you?" Chris asked me as he makes his way over to Stefan to attempt to pull the scythe out and I swear to god if I had some kind of weapon on me I would have stabbed him there and then, every time I looked at him I just wanted to hit him with something. I wanted all three Salvatore boys dead and they were all tied for first place but what I had in mind for Chris differed from his two cousins.

I wearily laugh at Chris question but then I have to grab my side, which Damon used as a kicking bag, a few of my ribs were definitely fractured or possibly broken and it hurt a bit but I'd be fine tomorrow. "Someone very important here in town does know about me, I'll admit that they are apart of the founders council but they won't admit to knowing about me. They know the second they do I leave and this town will have to fend for themselves and that is the last thing they want."

"So your going to kill us?" Stefan questions, as his breathing starts getting heaving due to the wood in the scythe being embedded in his chest.

"Isn't that obvious? I'm the slayer, it's my job to kill vampires and all three of you are vampires so I want to kill you." I say with a roll of my eyes, I seriously did not know why I was letting this conversation go on.

"It won't budge Chris." Stefan states as Chris attempts to pull the scythe out of Stefan's chest much to his avail and clambering up to his feet Damon attempts to try but like his cousin he can't lift the scythe and even the two of them attempting to lift it together doesn't make it move an inch.

"You should just stop trying, you'll never get it to move…" I taunt as I pick up a piece of broken wood from the floor and pick it up and twirl it around in my head. I had a half way decent plan, which involved me taking out Stefan, then Chris and leaving Damon for last. I had already taken on both Damon and Stefan so I doubted that Chris wouldn't be too much trouble. I'd kill them and then go home and have something to eat and then put this whole ordeal behind me.

"And why's that–?" Damon snaps.

"–Because only the slayer can lift the scythe." Wills announces from the doorway much to my annoyance, he was supposed to be here and I couldn't really kill three vampires whilst worrying about him getting killed.

"I told you to wait in the car, I've got this." I say, motioning for Wills to go back to my car with a sweeping motion of my hand.

"Yes I see that Madeline, you said that this wasn't going to take too long but then I had several crashes, profanity and then everything went quiet and I wanted to make sure that you weren't dead."

"Well alive for the most considering that a few of my ribs are probably broken but now that you've confirmed that I'm still alive you can leave now, I have everything under control." I state.

"Yes, I see that…" Wills dryly states.

"Umm… I don't mean to interrupt but back to the point Red otherwise I'm just going to kill you now and don't think your boyfriend will stop me because I reckon he wants you dead as much as I do." Damon threatens.

"You're not going to kill me Damon because you're not strong enough, because unlike you who needs to feed to be able to use their abilities, I don't. I'm stronger than any vampire and I get a little bit stronger every single, my senses are just as good as and my title alone strikes fear into any vampire. You can try and kill me all you like but I'm not going to let you kill me, not like you killed the others." I snap.

"Whatever… now take whatever that damn thing is out of my brother's chest."

I grin and shake my head. "No can do and besides what's in it for me? Because the way I see it, me removing my big and very bad slaying scythe out of your brother doesn't benefit me. And I don't really tend to let vampires live… "

Damon moves across the room to where Wills is standing and grabs him by the neck. "How about you pull that damn thing out of my brother and I'll let your friend live."

As tempting as it is to let Wills die, he's an innocent human and I'd rather not watch another one of my watcher's die so with a roll of my eyes I make my way over to where Stefan is lying and when I get there I stop about a meter away and motion for Chris to move because I don't want him anywhere near me. After he moves, I reluctantly pull the scythe out of Stefan. "Happy now?"

"No not really because your still here and alive."

"I could say the exact same thing." I retort.

"When did you discover we were vampires?" Stefan asks.

I use my sleeve to wipe my bloody nose. "I'll admit your cover is pretty solid and no one would think to suspect you of being vampires because day walking vampires are very rare but it was something each of you did that individually. For Stefan it was giving Elena the vervain, Christopher's lapis lazuli ring and then it was Damon's actions that pretty much made me very suspicious. Two words, Caroline Forbes. You were sloppy Damon and your actions led me straight to your front door. I figured if he was a vampire than the rest of the Salvatore family were as well."

"Then how do you know about Cedar Hill?" Damon demanded.

"That's none of your damn business Salvatore all that you need to know is that I know you killed Lorraine, Odile and Juliette and trust me your not going to get away with what you did to them." I state.

Damon grips Wills neck tighter and I can tell I've been forced into a corner if Wills wasn't here I could hold my own and take all three Salvatore boys but with a hostage I was going to have to comply. "Start talking Red and we want the truth."

"I tell you and you let Wills go, this has nothing to do with him. This is between the four of us." I reluctantly say.

"We'll let him go." Chris tells me.

"Yeah… I can't really trust the word of vampire given as they generally kill slayers so, you let him go now otherwise you just kill him now. Then I will call my friend on the founders council and let her know that the vampire that they are looking for is actually more than one and they come from one of the founding families before I kill you all either way someone is going to end up dead and it sure as hell not going to be me and preferably not my watcher either." I demand.

"Damon let him go…" Stefan states and with a frown Damon let's Wills drop to the floor.

"Eleven months ago I was called and not long after I started having these dream about this sweet girl with red hair and almond eyes in a diner. And in this dinner was a mannequin at the end of the diner and she kept warning me about him. After doing some research behind my watcher's back I discovered that the girl was Lorraine, a slayer who was active sixty years before I was. Then a couple of months after that I had a dream about Odile, a slayer who was active at the start of the twenties I dreamt of her sitting on top of her own grave and she kept saying he killed me. Less than a week after I got here I had another dream about Lorraine but this time Odile was there too and they were warning me…"

"You were having these dreams about Damon killing slayers?" Stefan asked.

"Not exactly it was a warning to me about Damon being a vampire and him being the true culprit of those so called animal attacks." I say as I grip the handle of the scythe even harder.

"You had a dream that warned you about me?" Damon scoffed which just annoyed me even further.

I can't help but laugh, Damon's arrogance was going to be his undoing. "Your really don't get it do you? All slayers share a psychic link throughout time, which manifests itself in our dreams, so essentially each slayer has fought the battles of the slayers before her but we're not consciously aware of it unless we're dreaming. But that's how I knew about Cedar Hill Salvatore. I was being warned by my fellow slayers and then tonight just before I arrived here tonight I had another little dream which had Lorraine, Odile and Juliette in and apparently the reason why I've been having these dreams is because of whatever Damon has planned…"

"You killed three slayers? You told me you only killed two, Damon you said that the girl in Texas was the last one…" Chris slowly stated

"You knew about this?" I demanded.

"Oh yeah Red, Christopher knows all about it considering he was there when I killed the natural red head slayer." Damon informs me.

"I-I'm going to kill you all…" I threaten.

"Looking forward to it." Damon quips.

"Madeline we need to leave, you can't take all three of them on like this… you'll end up getting yourself killed." Wills warned me but I ignore his as I didn't intend on going anywhere anytime soon, despite the injuries I had I wasn't giving up on this.

"I'm fine."

Chris takes a few steps towards me and naturally I take a couple of steps backs. "Your not fine Maddie, your hurt not to mention your bleeding. Go home and get yourself fixed up, you still want to kill me then it's fine it's not like I'm going anywhere anytime soon…"

"This isn't over."


	16. Chapter 16

I barely slept. And the sleep I got was barely three hours because in my head I kept going over the news that the Salvatore's were vampires. I could believe that Damon was but Stefan? He was supposed to be my friend and then Chris, dare I say it was practically my boyfriend. He had met my family, come into my house for dinner… which is why the time that I didn't sleep, I kept an eye out in case he was stupid enough to come in and try and hurt my family given that I did just try to kill his. Thank goodness it was the weekend, I was in the 'library' doing some training with Wills and quite simply kicking his ass. "I think this would be a good time to take a break." Wills tells me.

"Getting tired old man?" I jest as I bounce on my feet, I had no intention of stopping because I wanted to continue although I had kicked both Damon and Stefan Salvatore's ass it didn't mean that I didn't take a few hit myself.

"No I'm just afraid that you'll break my hand if you continue at the rate that your going at Madeline." Wills tells me as he takes off the punch mitts and places them on a box in the back room. "Besides we need to talk about the problem with the Salvatore's."

"There is no problem, well once I kill them there won't be…" I note with a small shrug of my shoulders.

"Well that's very reassuring if I hadn't seen what happened last night."

"Okay so last night didn't exactly go to plan considering I didn't have a plan because as soon as I had that dream I was ready to go but I had things under control. I had both Stefan and Damon incapacitated and I would have killed them. But then you showed up and I ended up having to spill some trade secrets so they wouldn't kill you." I point out with a forced smile.

"And whilst I appreciate it that, it was not what I was referring to Maddie. I was actually trying to talk to speak to you about the situation that you and the young or rather old Christopher Salvatore are in."

"There is nothing to talk about because there is nothing going on Wills, so can we just drop this topic already because I'm not in the mood to be talking about it?" I state in a rather annoyed manner I just wanted to stop talking about him and pretend like he didn't exist.

"We wouldn't have to talk about it if your slayer duties weren't being emotionally compromised by your feeling for him. Pretend all you life Maddie but you have feelings for him and it's pretty damn clear for all of us to see. That's why you didn't kill him or even attempt to last night." Wills tells me.

"Because I was trying to save your life!" I retort.

"Maybe. But I saw the look that the two of you shared when he told you to go home and take care of yourself. Just admit it Madeline you've fallen for him and despite the fact that you know he is a vampire you can't help the way that you feel. And it's obvious that he feels the same way.

I feel oddly exposed and it's as if Wills can see everything and he's focusing in on my insecurities and the feelings that I refuse to admit to anyone. Because I was smothering them with everything I could as they could not be out in the open for people to see. "Wills even if I did have feelings for him he's a vampire and I'm the slayer, that's kind of an automatic no-no in terms of a relationship."

"You can't pretend that your feelings don't exist Maddie, it's not healthy." Wills informs me.

"The whole star-crossed lovers' thing isn't something I need on top of everything else in my life at the moment. Look how well Romeo and Juliet ended? And they didn't have the freaky supernatural things going on in Verona. I'm here to kill vampires not fall in love with one…"

"Love? You love him? Now that is fascinating." Wills said as a wicked smile graces his face much to my annoyance, he's getting a real kick out of this.

"I don't love him. I don't believe in love, the word just happened to fit in with what I was trying to say. So you can wipe that smug smile off your face Adrian Willis and let me ask you something. Why would you be encouraging this? You're a watcher your supposed to be making my life miserable and making sure I dedicate every single moment of my life to training and slaying."

"Firstly if I tried to make you train constantly you would just walk out when you got bored, secondly as you are a special case Madeline you require special handling. Thirdly I have every confidence as your abilities as the slayer. Fourthly I've actually become quite fond of you despite you very brazen character and fifth and last item, we both know that your time as limited. There's nothing either of us can do about it and I don't want you to leave this life without living it as best you can, I know this goes against everything that the watchers council stand for but I want you to be happy Madeline and love is one of the greatest things you can experience. Vampire or no vampire."

"You suck!" I angrily retort. "This isn't how it's supposed to be, your not supposed to say things like that! Adrian Willis you are without a doubt the worst watcher I have ever come across!"

Willis just smirks at me. "So you frequently inform me."

I run. Quite simply that's what I do. I run as fast as I can and as hard as I can until I can't push myself any longer. Everything is a blur to me as I run and when I finally stop I see that I'm in the middle of the woods. I look around briefly before my knees give out and I fall to the floor. Usually I can stay up for days without feeling fatigue but with all the emotional stuff that I'm pretending isn't there, I feel drained. I lay there on the woodland floor with my eyes shut for a few minutes before I hear footsteps approaching me. Staying as still as possible I concentrate as hard as I can in an attempt to use my very rusty slayer skills to figure out whether it's human or a vampire. I can feel a hand coming close to my face and so even with my eyes shut I grab the arm and use my legs to toss whoever it is over me. Snapping my eyes open I roll onto my knees and so much to my dismay it's Chris. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I was taking a walk and then I saw your legs give out so I came over to check that you weren't dead and now I see that your not." Chris tells me and I roll my eyes in disbelief, I so did not believe any of that for a second and I found it hard to believe that he was taking a walk in the woods and just so happened to stumble across me.

"So you weren't hoping to drink my blood? Must be such a disappointment to you." I sneer as I stand up and brush the mud off my knees.

"Not really." Chris tells me before taking a deep breath "How are you ribs doing?"

"Fine." I snap.

"Do we really have to do this Maddie? All I'm asking is how you're doing, there is no need to bite my head off for asking a simple question."

"Yes we do because if you don't recall you're the one who does the biting around here seeing as you're a vampire. What the hell do you and your family think your doing here? You can't come here and just pretend to be normal because your not normal! Your freaking vampires and your going around pretending to be teenagers in high school and dating teenage girls!" I retort.

"This is about us… I knew it was." Chris states.

"No it's not! This is about Elena and Caroline, not to mention the other teenage girls that you, Stefan and Damon have done this to. They don't deserve this, all the lying…" I begin.

"Is that what this is about? Me not telling you that I was a vampire? What the hell was I supposed to do Maddie? Come up to you and say hi my name is Christopher Salvatore and I'm a hundred and sixty two year old vampire? It's not the first thing you tend to tell a girl when your trying to live as close to a normal life as possible." Chris angrily states.

"But you're not normal!" I yell.

"Neither are you!"

"I never said I was at least I'm not a vampire. I just kill them for a living." I retort as I brush a piece of my hair back behind my ear.

"You know my life has been perfectly okay despite the fact that I am indeed a vampire, I was content with it until you showed up here with your bright hair–" Chris begins.

"Hey! Leave my hair out of this!" I roar, furious that Chris has the nerve to bring my hair into this argument when it was innocent in all of this.

"Let me finish! You show up with your bight hair, pessimistic view points on everything and a beautiful smile that is always followed by sarcasm! A hundred and forty five years I was fine until you walked into my life! Damon was right, you know? When he said that I hadn't interested in anyone in forever… Ever before I become a vampire I have never been as interested in a girl until I met you." Chris says as he takes a couple of slow and careful steps towards me. "Tell me you don't want me and I'll leave… if you can tell me right here that you don't feel half of what I feel for you then I'll never bother you again."

"You know that I can't do that." I say in a worn tone of voice after what seems like eternity but in reality it's probably close to five minutes. I don't know what's come over me, maybe it's the lack of sleep or Wills big speech but some for reason I just bottle my feeling up anymore.

"Then why can't we be together?" Chris asks as he brushes his thumb against my cheek and wipes away the tear that I didn't even know I had.

I shake my head, I couldn't do this. "Chris you know why… you're a vampire and I'm the slayer, it would never work… you need to accept that and move on. I'm going to get older and your going to stay like this forever…"

"You don't think I understand our situation and how abnormal it is? I'm a hundred and sixty two year old vampire and you're a seventeen year old slayer, we're not normal Maddie and so yeah the concept of a normal relationship is highly unlikely. But that doesn't mean that I'm not willing to try and make us work so let's forget about the slayer and the vampire and focus on being Chris and Maddie." Chris tells me and before I can even reply to this he pulls me in close and kissed me. I'm stunned beyond belief because as right as this feels it is wrong. I'm the slayer and he's a vampire. My mind is in total conflict but here in this moment with Chris holding me so gently and kissing me like I matter makes me feel safe for the first time in the last eight months even since I became the slayer.

"I-I can't… I'm sorry" I say stepping back and pulling myself out of Chris' graps.

"Why not Maddie? And don't give me the whole you're the slayer and I'm a vampire reason because I'm not buying that for a second and I know your not either." Chris tells me as he grabs my hand and I attempt to pull away but he holds on to it, refusing to let go.

"Because I'm going to die Chris…" I tearfully admit.

"I won't let you."

I shake my head, he didn't understand any of this. "You can't. I'm destined to die young and that's the reality of it because I'm the slayer. I'll be lucky if I even reach eighteen and I'm already going to leave the people I love behind, I can't add anymore to that list…"

"I don't care Madeline…" Chris determinedly states.

"But I do."


	17. Chapter 17

I had taken to avoiding Chris. Ignored his calls for the rest of the weekend and when it came to school I was going full out on the avoidance thing which was pretty damn hard as we had like four class together so it involved me getting to class just as the bell was going and leaving as soon as the bell went. Making my way to my locker, I see much to my dismay that Chris is standing right next to it and I would avoid it completely if I didn't have to get my trig textbook. "I really don't want to do this anymore Chris it's starting to get repetitive..." I begin.

"Maddie we need to talk, it's been five days since what happened in the woods you can't avoid me forever." Chris tells me.

"No we really don't, you've made your feelings perfectly clear and so have I, there's nothing more to say or do so just forget everything and move because if you keep this up I will kill you Chris. At the moment you're the only thing that's keeping you and the rest of your family alive but I can and will change my mind if I have to." I state as I open my locker and grab my trig book before slamming my locker shut and walking away.

"…Hey, what was that? I thought you and Chris were getting along and kind of seeing each other?" Bonnie asks as she makes her way towards me.

Yeah we were until I found out that he was a bloody vampire and despite the fact that I do have feelings for him, it can never be because it is and will forever be a forbidden love and all that jazz. "No were not, It's complicated Bonnie…"

"What is so complicated about boy likes girl and girl likes boy? He is crazy for you and it is obvious to everyone Madeline! I know your scared but sometimes you shouldn't let your fears define you! Take the risk, you never know Christopher Salvatore may just be your one true love!" Bonnie says and I just roll my eyes as I was so not in the mood for the true love conquers all speech.

The remainder of the school day involves me avoiding everyone, Chris is just general, Bonnie because I wasn't in the mood to talk to her about Chris and Caroline because she refused to take no for an answer in terms of me not going to the Halloween party that was taking place at the school later. Halloween wasn't that much of a big deal to me as although generally vampires did use the day to rummage and feast on humans I knew exactly who the vampires in town were. And they knew that getting on my bad side was something they needed to avoid. Tonight I was having a quiet night in with Magnus and Ozzy as Rory had gone to the party at the school and dad had taken Felix out trick or treating plus Sophia had left hours ago. I was sitting down and watching a film when I was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell going off, getting up and opening the door I see that it's Chris. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"We need to talk Maddie."

I sigh, we had been through this so many times now. "No we don't Chris and don't ever show up here again. You may have been invited in but you are not welcome in this house as long as my family."

"We have a problem?"

"Yeah you bugging me at home is a real problem!" I retort.

"I meant a vampire one Maddie! Vicky Donovan is vampire!" Chris announced much to my amazement and Chris sighs. "Look I shouldn't even be telling you this considering that you're the slayer but the night of the founders party Stefan, Zach and I manage to drug Damon with vervain through Caroline to stop him, we figured we'd let him waste away and lock him away in the family tomb. But he was strong enough to get Caroline to release him. I know you don't want anything to do with me and you probably don't care about this but I'm telling you this because people have been and are being hurt because of Damon and as the slayer I figured you'd want to know. He killed our nephew Zach, then a five other people in town but he covered those up and for some reason he fed off Vicki, went on a blood drinking and sharing binge with her before deciding to turn her because he was bored."

"He turned Vicki because he was born?" I demand, I should have killed him when I had the chance because even more people were dying because of both us. Me because I let him live and Damon, because he was a vampire and a complete ass.

"Yeah that's Damon for you but that's not the rest of it. Logan Fell attacked Stefan and would have killed him if Vicki hadn't killed him when she fed on him and completed her transition and he had this compass on him but it wasn't any normal compass." Chris tells me

"The device…" I murmur.

"Wait you know what it is?"

"Yeah it finds vampires but vampires can't use it themselves so it's not really relevant to you seeing as you and your wacked out family can't use it but back to the point, Vicki has transitioned…"

Chris wearily nods. "And now she's missing, my moronic cousins let her out and she just disappeared so they've been trying to find her, they think she's gone to the haunted house at school."

"Oh shit! Rory is there, I've got to go and stop her…" I say as try and figure out in my head what the hell I'm going to do as I did not see this one coming at all in the slightest. "If I don't do something it's going to turn into a blood bath there, Vicki's a freshly turned vampire and we both know better than anyone that she is craving blood and there are plenty of jugular veins for her to bite including my brother's, I'm going to have to kill her… I pray to god that I get there in time."

"Jump on my back Maddie, I'm faster than your car and I can get there quicker." Chris says and I reluctantly nod so grabbing my keys I step out of the house and lock the door behind me before jumping on Chris' back and shutting my eyes. I don't know how long it is but eventually we stop and I open my eyes and see that we're by the side of the car in the car park.

"Thanks." I awkwardly say as I slide of Chris' back and feel around my back pocket for my stake but I realize to my horror that I didn't pick one up. "Damnit! I forgot to bring a stake, I'm going to have to find something to suffice as I go along, which is just great but back to the task at hand. We find Rory first, he's in a Freddie Krueger costume and then I'll deal with Vicki, is that clear?"

"Crystal clear."

Going into the building I'm blind sighted by the darkness, the flashing lights and costumes but very quickly my eyes adjust and I'm scanning through the crowds as I walk through the corridor and it was if destiny and fate we're cutting me a break as Rory runs straight past me but I mange to grab him and drag him back in the nick of time. "Maddie what the hell!" Rory yells.

"There is a vampire in the building and I'm not referring to Chris who is in fact a vampire too but as your big sister and the slayer I'm making sure that you are safe." I snap as even though this wasn't the best palace to do this I was try and find Vicki because the longer she was out there the more people were in danger.

"Wait? Your boyfriend is a vampire! Are you trying to pull a funny or very bad Halloween joke and costume?" Rory demands.

"No I'm not funny I'm being deadly serious Rory, Chris is a vampire whose been eternally damned to be a blood drinking vampires and you know full well that I kill vampires. But that isn't the issue right now we have fresh vampire who is craving blood on the loose so shut the hell up so I can concentrate!" I hiss as I close my eyes.

"What are you doing? Chris asks.

"I can vaguely sense vampires, it's tricky to do and requires practice and a lot of concentration and I'm not great so don't move an inch otherwise if I'm not careful I'll just pick you up but as Vicki is a baby vampire it should be easier to…" I begin before opening my eyes and I try to gather my thoughts together and after a minute or so I'm pretty sure I got a hit. "Back of the school by the buses, that's where I think she is."

"You sure?" Chris wearily asks.

I shake my head, I hadn't been sure on anything in the last couple of days and usually I was sure when it came to slaying but this situation was a new one. I was searching for a bloodthirsty new transitioned vampire with my brother and the vampire who I really liked. "Not really but we don't have much choice, so keep a hold of Rory and don't let him out of your sight and both of you follow me, let's go find ourselves a vampire to kill…"


	18. Chapter 18

It took us longer for us to get to the back of the school because of the ridiculous amounts of pushing and shoving that I had to do just to get through the hallways as they were filled with people of all ages. When we finally got outside, I saw Vicki about to start feeding on Jeremy and so I run over and pull her off him and proceed to punch her a several times. I was going to be damned if I let her hurt anyone even if it was Damon's fault in the first place. "Jeremy get back!" I yell

"V-Vicki…" Jeremy stammers in shock.

I get momentarily distracted by Jeremy and checking whether or not he is okay, that I miss Vicki's mouth bite down on my neck and despite the pain of having some vampires teeth making contact with my skin, I lift my leg up and kick as hard as I can which sends Vicki staggering back into a bus and I grab her arms to pin her against the bus but she overpowers me and throws me to the side where I land not too far from Jeremy. I scramble to my feet and stand in front of Jeremy, making sure that he is safely behind me and Vicki approaches us. "Vicki NO!"

My eyes dart across to see Elena running towards us with a plank and Vicki turns on her and using her vampire speed, throws Elena into a pile of nearby rubbish and I run over and tackle Vicki to the floor, where I hit her again several times and when it seems like her body is getting a bit sluggish I drag her up against a school bus. But I underestimate the former druggie as she head buts me rather hard and I fall to the ground, as I rub my head in annoyance I see that Stefan is now holding Vicky up against the bus.

"Maddie!" Chris calls out.

"I'm fine! Just get the others out of here!" I reply as Stefan is knocked away by Vicki who uses that moment of confusion to disappear out of nowhere.

"Vicki!" Jeremy calls out and as I keep my eyes and ears peeled for any sound of Vicki, I pick up a discarded wooden plank, which just do happened to be rather pointy at one end. May not be the ideal stake, but it would do.

"Go, get inside! Go!" Stefan tells the others as Elena is clearly injured, then there was the whole Jeremy thing along with Chris and Rory being there too. Three of us here could take care of ourselves but Rory, Jeremy and Elena couldn't and them being out here was dangerous considering we had no idea where Vicky was.

"Chris take them inside, I've got this." I wearily reply and he nods at me and starts shepherding the others towards the door that will lead them back inside the building to where it is safe from Vicki. I look at Stefan and he nods at me, despite the fact that I did this alone I knew that I needed him and I knew he'd have my back in this, Vicki was unlike most of the vampires I had ever come across, she was more primitive and out of control most likely down to her drug usage when she was still human.

As the others all head towards the door to make their way inside Stefan checks under the buses and I keep a look out up front just incase and it's a good thing I do, as Vicki comes out of nowhere and pushes Jeremy to the ground and grabs Elena and sinks her teeth into her neck. I run over as Elena cries out in agony and I plunge my make shift stake into the back of Vicki's chest and straight through her heart, killing her. Pulling the 'stake' out I drop it on the floor and Vicki makes these weird sounds that have become oh so familiar to me during my tenure as the slayer.

"Vicki! Vicki! Vicki!" Jeremy calls out as he gets up and runs over but Stefan holds him back thankfully, as her body falls to the ground and she lies there in a weird wrinkly and grayish sight like vampires do once they've been killed.

"Get him out here…" Elena wearily tells Stefan who nods and leads Jeremy away.

"Maddie…"

I look away from Vicki's body to see Rory and Chris, taking a deep breath I make my way over and hug Rory. Even though he knew I was the slayer, he had never seen me take on one, no doubt it freaked him and as knowing was one thing but seeing it was another. After I let go off my brother I turn to Chris. "Will take him home for me? Then wait for me in my room until I get back, I have some thing to take care of but I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Sure thing." Chris tells me.

"I-I'm not going with him Maddie!" Rory splutters.

"Rory, he won't hurt you so just go with him. I'll explain everything when I get back…" I say and knowing he won't win leaves with Chris and once they do I take a deep breath before turning to look at Elena who had sunk to her knees and was sitting by Vicki's body. "Elena…"

"S-She's dead Maddie, y-you killed her…"

"Vicki would have killed you and me not to mention Jeremy and other people to, I did what I had to do and it was for the best. Vicki was too unstable to handle being a vampire, it's better for everyone this way." I say but it is clear that Elena is in shock and overwhelmed about all of this and a year ago I was in that same position. But now it just didn't faze me anymore.

"The best? Vicki is dead Maddie! How is that best for anyone? And what about Matt? Vicki is his sister… Stefan was working with her so she wouldn't hurt anymore." Elena tells me.

"Elena, when you become a vampire everything become heightened, your senses but in particular your emotions. Vicki was a drug addict and had an addictive personality and being a vampire made that much worse, vampires and drugs don't mix but for someone like Vicki, blood would be her drug. And given her history and personality she would have constantly needed blood. So when I say it's better for everybody I mean it's better for everybody because I'd rather Vicki be dead then her feeding off the innocent people in this town." I bluntly put, it was harsh but Elena needed to hear it.

"How can you say that Maddie? Your one of them…" Elena said.

"A vampire? No I'm not."

"B-But… I saw you." Elena stammered.

"It's complicated to explain but I am not a vampire." I simply state before being interrupted by the arrival of Damon who was the one responsible for this entire mess in the first place. Probably come to take a look at his handy work.

"The two of you should go, I got this." Damon tells us and I roll my eyes, I had fixed his little mistake but he was being kind enough to clean it up for me. What a gentleman.

"You did this. This is your fault." Elena angrily points out as she stands up.

"You confuse me with someone with remorse." Damon replies with a flat tone off voice and Elena attempts to hit Damon but she wasn't quick enough as Damon grabbed her hand in order to stop her. "None of this matters to me, none of it."

"People die around you, how could it not matter? It matters and you know it!" Elena angrily stated before proceeding to actually hit him this time.

"You both need to leave, your wounds are bleeding and you need to leave." Damon warns and Elena walks off but I stay put.

"What the hell were you thinking? Turning Vicki because you were bored, are you freaking kidding me Damon? You may be the big bad vampire who likes causing misery and death everywhere you go but let's not forget that I am the big bad slayer who can and will kill you!"

"I see that." Damon says pointing to Vicki's body. "Nice job, although I see Vicki left a mark on you."

I press my hand to my neck where Vicki bit me and removing my hand I note the blood. "You make it very hard for me not to want to kill you and I'm warning you now, anymore of killing innocent people and turning them and I will go get my big scythe and cut you into tiny little bit.

"I'm so scared." Damon taunts.

"Fix this or you will be." I warn before leaving Damon to deal with Vicki as all I wanted to do was go home and sleep although i had ten million things to deal with like Rory and Chris. Then I needed to know what was going on with this whole Jeremy thing plus talk with Elena and Stefan, then tell Wills what happened but most of it could wait until tomorrow. I'd deal with Rory and Chris tonight, fix myself up and deal with the rest later.

Half an hour I was back home with one oblivious dad, one sleeping little brother with two dogs and another brother who was completely confused. Walking out of Rory's room I walk across the hall until I reach my bedroom, where is sitting on the edge of my bed waiting for me just like he said he would be. "Hey… how's Rory?"

"Okay I guess, he knows about vampires and the whole slaying thing but he's never seen it for himself but he'll be fine, just give him sometime it's just going to take sometime for him to wrap his head round it all." I say as I take my jacket off and chuck in on the armchair in the corner of my room.

"What about you?" Chris asked.

"I'm fine."

"You sure as hell don't look fine Madeline." Chris pointed out as he handed me a first aid kit and I wearily laughed as I dug through and grabbed some antiseptic wipes and large plaster.

"It's nice of you to worry but I'm the slayer remember? I'm tougher than this 5'8 exterior makes me out to be so I'll be all nice and healed by tomorrow." I quip as I take a few moments to fix myself up and by then I'm almost as good as new. "Thank you for everything, you know looking after Rory and telling me about Vicki…"

"No problem… do you want to talk about it, the Vicki think?"

"What's there to talk about? Damon turned her into a vampire, I staked her in the heart and now she's dead. Case closed, there's nothing else to really talk about on the subject. Although Damon was kind enough to clean up his mess after I did all the hard work" I say with a sigh as I take of my shoes.

"You did the right thing." Chris tells me as he stands up and takes a couple of steps towards me.

"I know I did. I had to kill Vicki for all our sakes, she was a liability but tonight was the first night that I've ever been bitten by a vampire, I've come close plenty of times. Just not as close as tonight. I admit that Vicki could have killed me although it would have been every embarrassing for a slayer to be killed by a freshly transitioned vampire." I note dismally.

"Maddie…"

I take a step towards Chris and take a deep breath as I did I thought about what Chris said about how he felt about me and how we didn't have to be define by being the vampire and the slayer. Then I also thought about that Wills told about living my life. "Chris I'm going to die, simply as. Slayers don't tend to live long lives and it's scary, I'll admit. I try not to think about it much but sometimes I wake up and wonder if today's the day when I'll never come home. Then I'll be having dinner with my family before I go patrolling and I think is this the last time I'll ever be with them and do they know how much I love them. As morbid as it all I've accepted it, you know I can't fight this and neither can you Chris. You need to accept the fact that I will die, maybe sooner than later."

"This isn't fair." Chris reluctantly says and I know as upsetting as me dying maybe, he's slowly and rather begrudgingly accepting this all.

"Life isn't fair, otherwise we would be normal people and met each other in your time or you would have been born in my time. But there are feeling here that won't go away Chris, no matter how much I keep telling myself it won't work because of who we are…"

"What are you saying Maddie?"

"That we just focus on being Chris and Maddie… I don't know how to do this, you know I'm not exactly girlfriend material but maybe this will be great? Or be absolutely terrible, all I know is that I can't change how I feel about you…"


	19. Chapter 19

The next morning the first thing I did when I got up was go and check on Rory, we had spoken last night about everything that had happened but I still wanted to see if he was okay given that he was pretty freaked about it all according to Chris. I had a busy day today as I had to go over to the Salvatore's today to explain everything to Elena and I was bringing Wills with me so I could set some ground rules for allowing to Salvatore's to remain here but first I had deal with Rory. My family came before any vampire on my list of priorities. Knocking on the door I waited for the gruff reply from the other side of the door before walking into the room, to where Rory was still laying in bed. "Hey…" I begin.

"Hi Maddie." Rory wearily replies as he wipes his eyes, it's clear that he hasn't been up too long.

I made my way over and popped myself down at the edge of the bed and looked at my brother, after what happened last night I was seriously doubting the decision I made eight months when I told Rory that I was the slayer. "I just wanted to check in, see how you were doing this morning and see whether everything has sunk in because I know it must have been quite a shock…"

"…Understatement of the year Madeline, I saw you take on a vampire who could have killed all of us and instead you killed her. I watched you and it seemed like no big deal to you and maybe it isn't but it was terrifying, that vampire bit you Maddie and she could have killed you." Rory said.

"Look at me Rory I'm all good and my neck is healed fine! I told you Slayers heal quicker that normal people." I say pulling the plaster off my neck and pointing to where Vicki had bitten me although there was no trace of it.

"Is it always like that? You know when go out slaying…" Rory questioned.

"Kind of. I'm generally more prepared and not as sloppy as I was last night given the whole make shift prop, when Chris came over and told me about Vicki and how she may be at the school I thought of you and I was so worried that I forgot to pick up the stake so I had to wing it." I admit.

"For someone who had to wing it last night, you kicked ass."

"Thanks, I try."

"So…" Rory wearily began. "Chris is a vampire, I didn't exactly see that one coming and I doubt that you did either."

"Yeah as is his two cousins Damon and Stefan but don't worry about anything, even though Chris has been invited in, I won't let anything happen to you, Felix or dad.

We can trust him Rory as crazy as this sounds coming from of all people as if it wasn't for Chris then I wouldn't have know what was going on yesterday until it was too late. He's not like most vampires I've come across, there's something about him that's different…" I admit.

"So you and him are together?"

I bite my lip and then slowly nod. "Yeah pretty much, I know it's weird…"

"Well he didn't kill me when he brought me home last night, so he can't be too bad even if he is a vampire but you're the slayer Maddie. You killed that other vampire last night but why not Chris and his family?" Rory questioned and I had to admit that it was a very good one.

"It's complicated and I can't really explain it now as I have to go and see Chris and the rest of the Salvatore's and my friend Elena as there are things we need to sort out but anyway I just came to check on you and I'll be back later on tonight and we can talk some more. You need me for anything just call." I say ruffling Rory's hair before excusing myself to get ready. I was going over to the Salvatore's to not only figure out this whole Vicki thing but to explain everything to Elena. Chris told me last night that she was aware that him, Stefan and Damon were vampires and she had found out a couple of days before I figured it out myself. Half an hour later after showering, getting dressed and grabbing a quick bite to eat I was pulling up in the driveway of the Salvatore house. Climbing out the car, I make way to the door and knock… funny how I was kicking down the door last time I was here.

I stand outside the door twiddling my thumbs idly until the door finally opens and who should be the one behind it? Chris. "Good morning Madeline."

"Hi…" I feebly squeak as I take in the appearance of Chris who looks as always devastatingly handsome especially today dressed in his grey sweater and dark jeans. I felt my heart and then there was that he was looking at me. I honestly didn't know why he wanted me of all people. "Christopher Salvatore I really do not understand you in the slightest…"

"Is that so?" Chris chuckled.

"You wasn't supposed to hear that because I wasn't supposed to say it out loud for you to hear. Mouth and brain aren't connected yet, I'm afraid…" I explain leaving out the fact that it was only when I was around Chris that I sometimes lost the ability to think and speak coherently.

"Well do you want to come in? Everyone else is here…" Chris begins and nodding I slowly take a couple of steps into the house and into the hallway that leads into the living room. "I forgot to ask how are you doing? You were hurt last night and then last time you were here you got pretty banged up…"

"Peachy. Bones are no longer fractured and cuts are healed and gone. I told you I heal faster." I reply as we walk into the living room where Damon, Elena and Stefan are all there ready and waiting.

"Red it's nice of you to finally make it to our humble home, now empty your pockets. Damon began and I just rolled my eyes.

"I think your being a bit overdramatic and uncalled for." Stefan begins.

"With her? After what happened before? I don't think I am, so empty your pockets Red and make it quick as I don't have all day." Damon tells me.

With a roll of my eyes I pull out the stake and the knuckledusters from the inside of my jacket and fling them on the couch and then take off my jacket to show that I don't have any more weapons on me. "Can't blame a girl considering that you a vampire and a general pain in the ass Damon but it's not like I need them to kick your ass again, I can do it just as well with my own bare hands…"

"I'll say it again, funny taste in women you have Christopher." Damon says and Chris chuckles quietly.

"I-I don't understand… You said that you're not a vampire Maddie but I saw you last night with Vicki, so if you're not a vampire then what exactly are you?" Elena asks, pulling my away from Damon.

"What did you tell her?" I ask no one in particular.

"Nothing. You said that you wanted to be the one to explain everything to Elena." Stefan informs me and I just nod slowly before motioning for Elena to sit down on one of the many couches in the room.

"I'm human Elena, that is the first thing you've got to know but I'm not like everyone else. I'm different. Quite simply I'm a vampire slayer, well technically the only one…" I begin.

"Vampire slayer? What does that mean? That you kill vampires?" Elena questions and I just simply nod as she kind of answered her own question for herself. "How? Why Maddie? Why would do this…"

"It's not a choice Elena." I reply. "Into every generation, there is a Chosen One. One girl in all the world. She alone will wield the strength and skill against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness; To stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. She is the Slayer."

"What is that?"

"The prophecy of the slayer, but for you to understand I have to tell you everything and to do that I have to explain how vampire originated… Over a thousand years ago the first vampires were created and that's where the problems began and such creatures were not and should not have been able to exist. No one should be able to live forever or do what vampires are capable to do. Stories differ but nature could not stand for such abominations so the weakness that vampires have were given, so that they could be destroyed–" I explain.

"Like vervain and sunlight?" Elena states. "But how does that involve you."

"Ten years after the first vampires were created a group witches sought to find someway to protect innocent people from vampires and to stop their numbers and vampires taking over. And what they came up with changed everything, they sought one girl to fight the vampires to stop them and so they came up with a very powerful spell using the blood of a vampire. This spell of theirs gave the girl incredibly powers, it allowed her to possess strength greater that humans and any vampire, enhanced speed, agility, reflexes and heightened senses amongst many other talents. They created the first slayer."

"The first? So there have been others before you?"

I nod. "Knowing that what lives must die, the witches insured a way for the slayer line to carry on and so they cast another spell. Which allowed the slayers powers to be transferred to another girl who would continue fighting the vampires, like the prophecy states 'into every generation, there is a chosen one' but things weren't exactly that simple. When the spell was created it also created what we now call potential slayers, which are a large number of girls who could become the slayer. And when the slayer dies, her powers are transferred or awakened into a seemingly random girl which activates her as the slayer as she has been called… There have been many slayers before me, isn't that right Damon?"

"Hmm…" Damon sneered.

"What am I missing?" Elena questioned.

"Damon over here has killed three slayers in his time, although that's going to stop." I darkly comment.

"So you were chosen Maddie? To be the slayer?"

"I wouldn't use the words chose but rather called, after the death of Calliope I was activated and I became the slayer eleven months ago, killing vampires and taking names as I go along."

"So you kill vampires… Are you going to kill Stefan, Chris and Damon just like you killed Vicki…"

"I should. It's my destiny to kill vampires and here I am in a room with three of them and I'd have no problem doing it especially given what Damon's done here in Mystic Falls since he's arrived and how he's killed slayers, but no I'm not. For the moment but if anymore stunts like turning people into vampires to satisfy boredom and feeding off innocent people then I won't hesitate to kill any vampire." I tell Elena before my eyes drift over to Damon. "You are lucky that I'm letting you live after what you've done but anymore blood drops in this town and I am coming after you first with my scythe and trust me it won't be a stake to the heart, I promise I'll cut off your head."

"Again with the threats Red." Damon scoffs.

Taking a couple of steps forward I grab Damon by the next and lift him up off the ground and squeeze, rather tightly. "We both know the only reason why I haven't kill you yet is because of Christopher and don't think for one second that just because your cousin is my boyfriend that I won't kill you because I will… is that clear?"

"Maddie, I won't let him do anything." Chris reassures me by placing a hand on my shoulder and reluctantly I let go off Damon and he falls to the floor and starts coughing.

"So you kill vampires?"

"Amongst other things, but yes." I say turning my attention away from Damon and over to Elena. "I was called as the slayer and it's my job to kill them until I die, then another girl is called. When one dies, another is called… Slayers are kind of expendable like that given we don't tend to live long lives after we've been called."

"I thought we talked about this death thing." Chris says and I can't help but smirk.

"Anyway you know the truth now but you can't tell anyone Elena, me being the slayer has to be kept quiet as it's dangerous for people to know, even my family with the exception of Rory don't know. If you tell someone then it could get them or yourself or anyone else I care about killed, is that understood?"

Elena nods. "I understand Maddie."

"Okay now that we've got that sorted out what are doing about this Vicki situation…"


	20. Chapter 20

Sitting on the hood of my car, I went over my spanish homework that was due today at third period whilst eating apple slices. I left for school earlier this morning to give Wills a update about everything that had happened and the sort of understanding that I came to with the Salvatores speicifially Damon. Not to mention that we sorted out this whole Vicki thing, Damon had gotten rid of her body and then Elena plus Stefan had to go to the police station to give a statement as Matt had reported Vicki as missing now. Things had certainly gotten more complicated then I would have liked but there was nothing I could do about it except deal with it.

"You know you were right about you hair, it's good for helping to people to find you…" A well known voice to me said and I turned my head around to see Chris standing my driver's side door.

"Hey!" I say with a small smile.

"Right back at you Maddie, I tried calling you after you left the boarding house to see if you wanted to so something but I just kept getting your voicemail the entire weekend." Chris tells me as he walks round to the front of my car as I slide my Spanish homework and textbook into my bag just as Chris comes to a stop right in front of me.

"Yeah about that, I had this date…" I say offhandedly.

"A date, really? With whom? If you don't mind me asking." Chris questions narrowing his eyes at me ever so slightly at it is becoming damn near impossible for me not to start laughing.

"With this guy, he's lovely and cute with his dark hair and blue eyes, I was teaching him how to skate but I don't think it's going anywhere as he happens to be eight years old not to mention my little brother and insisted his two best friends who are dogs come with us. It was a very busy and exhausting weeked, hence me being unable to return you calls Christopher." I quip and Chris takes a moment to laugh at himself for falling for it and it makes me laugh as I thought he was perfect but now I found out that he wans't so perfect. Chris was gullable.

"That's very nice to know because I recall you calling me your boyfriend the day before yesterday." Chris smugly states and my eyes widen in surprise as when I thought back to when I went over to the Salvatores on Saturday morning I did call Chris my boyfriend during the time I was threatening Damon.

"Oh yeah, I kind of did…" I squeak, we hand't exactly talked about what this was exactly but it was clear that there were strong feelings on both sides that weren't going to go away anytime soon regardless of us being the vampire and the slayer. The one thing we knew was that we wanted to be together and so calling him my boyfriend was kind of summed it all up.

"I'm glad you did, which reminds me that I forgot to say good morning to my girlfriend." Chris quietly says as he moves a piece of my hair behind my ear and leaves his hand by my cheek and as I look at him I just can't help but sigh. The man was far too good looking to be want to date me of all people but here he was, proud to be acknowledged as my boyfriend. Which reminded me that I still needed to ask him, why he was intreted in me of all people? But I suppose that could wait until later.

"I thought we said hello already?" I asked as I bit down on my lip which just caused Chris to laugh. I liked it when he laughed or smile as it made him even more frightfully good looking then he already was. Unlike Stefan who a natural brroder, Chris was one of those people who were natural smiley.

"Big difference between saying hello and good morning I'll have you know, especially when it comes to you Madeline." Chris quietly murmured and it was kind of obvious that he was going to kiss me but some how it still took me by surprise. How unexpectedly soft it was, yet sending tingles down my spine that made my toes curl. I didn't remember the kiss in the woods being like this but then again I was very pissed off and angry with Chris that day to appreciate anything. And as much as I could spend the entire day doing this, I had to remind myself that we we're currently in the parking lot and with some reluctance I pull away and as I do I notice someone watching us in shock from the corner of my eye and I can't help but chuckle. "What's so funny? I thought we were in the middle of something…"

"We have company Christopher." I murmur and I watch as his eyes quickly divert away from me and his brows furrow together before his eyes return to mine.

"We'll continue this later then." Chris told me leaving no room for arguments, as if there would be any on my part.

"Okay then." I reply as Chris removes his hand from my cheek and choses to place it on my waist instead and I just roll my eyes at him before turning my attention away from him and on to the friend who was clearly shocked to see the two of us together with good reason. "Hello Bonnie."

"…You two? The two of you are together?" Bonnie asks and it's clear that she's in shock. Which was understandable given how I had made it perfectly clear that I was not going to get involved with Chris. Funny how things change.

"Yeah." I simply say with a small nod whilst Chris grins like a chesire cat. And moments later Bonnie was wearing a grin similar to the one that Chris was wearing, which caused me to roll my eyes as I could see what was coming next, the whole I told you so routine. "So you can some out with the I told you so's already, you and Elena were right and I should have listened to you."

"I told you so." Bonnie gleefully said and I coulnd't help but roll my eyes again.

"What are you talking about?" Chris asked.

"Bonnie along with Elena have been trying to convince me to give you a chance as they think that we'd make a perfect couple and I was reistant to the idea but it never did anything to dissuade them, they've been on the Chris and Maddie train ever since we met. Bonnie's been your biggest supporter…" I explain which causes Chris and Bonnie to share amused glances at each other. The two of them were quickly becoming besties.

"I'll leave the two of you to it, I'll see you both later." Chris says before walking off not before placing a kiss on my cheek which causes me to blush and for Bonnie to practically jump for joy.

"So what changed? You went from not wanting a boyfriend to now dating the guy you claimed you didn't want." Bonnie questions as soon as Chris was out of earshot but I knew that he'dbe listening, not that I couldn't blame him. I guess he too wanted to know what made me decided to give him a chance.

"Several things I guess, people were telling me not to be so frigid with things and that I should stop being so standoffish about this entire thing as I'll only live once and most importantly Chris. He wouldn't give up on me, no matter how much I tried to push him away and believe me I tried but he would not take no for an answer. You saw me Bonnie, how I was adamant about not getting involved with him and then a few days ago he told me how he felt and that he knew that I felt the same way despite me trying to pretend otherwise… I of course lost my temper and then Chris kissed me which made things about ten times worse…" I reminsce and a smike can't help but grace my face as I think back to the day in the woods.

"And? What was it like?" Bonnie demanded. "I saw that kiss you two shared earlier, so spill!"

"I-It's surreal, I'm not sure how to explain it Bonnie but when he kisses me it's like he's putting all his feelings into it and I can feel it in the pit of my stomach, there's all these butterflies and sensations which make me forget everything and I can't breathe... He makes me feel like a giddy school girl." I say with a shake of my head.

"Maddie you are a school girl." Bonnie couldn't help but point out.

"I know but that's not what I meant, after that first kiss I was mad with Chris but then he did something for me that he didn't have to and it meant a lot to me, more than he'll ever know." I state as I think back to when Chris came over to tell me about Vicki and how Rory could have been hurt if he hadn't come to the house to tell me despite knowing full well that I could kill him, which reminded me I still needed to ask Chris why he wanted me of all people? "Despite what I think about the whole dating thing, it won't change this thing thing between me and Chris so I decided to give him a chance. I don't do realtionships and there is some deep psychoanalytical reasons for that involving my childhood and parent no doubt but there's something about Chris, so I took a risk with him and jumped despite my better judgment and he caught me Bonnie and he's kind of made it clear that he'll always be there to catch me."

"It sounds like your falling in love with him."

"Don't be so ridicoulous." I say with a scoff but even I didn't believe that one and I glanced over to where Chris was talking with Stefan, if I wasn't careful then that kind, classy and considerate man could change all my perceptions and opinions I hade about love. Which I still wasn't sure would be a good or a bad thing.


End file.
